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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



TIMELY TOPICS ^ *^^ 



V 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA 
IN ASIA 



GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE 

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AUTHOR OF " MODERN GREECE," " ROUMANIA AND SERVIA,' 

ETC. 



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BOSTON 
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 

i 885 



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Copyright, 1S85 
By JAMES R. OSGOOD AND CO. 



All rights reserved 



PRESS OF 

ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL 

BOSTON 



PREFACE. 



♦ » ♦ 



The purpose of the " Timely Topic" series, 
of which this is the initial volume, is to supply 
to the reader, in a compact and convenient 
form, information concerning interesting topics 
and events which arise from time to time to 
occupy the popular mind. Whenever a sub- 
ject reaches, in public interest, a degree of 
importance like that at present appertaining to 
the rivalry between England and Russia in 
the East, or that of the policy of England in 
Egypt and the Soudan, it is intended to issue 
promptly a handy volume, which shall enable 
the reader to understand the causes, bearings, 
and course of the event in question. 

In the present volume the attempt is made 
to so present and group the facts relating to 



4 PREFACE. 

the Russian and English conquests in Asia, 
and the conditions of their antagonistic policies 
on that continent, as to give the reader suc- 
cinctly, and without the necessity of hunting 
up and consulting many works, a clear idea 
of the reasons why the two great European 
empires are in collision in the East ; and to 
afford him the materials for forming a judgment 
on the events resulting from that collision as 
they proceed. 

The subject is certainly one of more than 
incidental or passing interest. It is well-nigh 
certain to reappear again and again, until the 
issue is decided by the final arbitrament of arms. 
There is an "irrepressible conflict" between 
England and Russia for commercial and military 
supremacy in Central and Western Asia ; and 
all the world looks to see it go on until one 
of these powers decisively triumphs over the 
other. 

G. M. T. 
Boston, April, 1885. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. The English in India 7 

II. The Government of India ...... 31 

III. The Military Resources of India ... 42 

IV. The Russians in Central Asia .... 45 
V. The Peoples of Turkistan 77 

VI. Military Resources of Russia .... 92 

VII. Afghanistan 97 

VIII. England versus Russia ....... 109 



MAPS. 

GENERAL MAP OF INDIA. 

RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN AFGHANISTAN. 

THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON HERAT. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA 
IN ASIA. 



i. 

THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 

The vast English empire of India, with its 
population of nearly 200,000,000, and its area 
of nearly 900,000 square miles, has grown up, in 
the course of three centuries, from a few small 
settlements founded on its shores by English 
traders. A company of London merchants 
received, in 1600, a charter from Queen 
Elizabeth, which conceded to them the exclu- 
sive right to trade with the East Indies for a 
period of fifteen years. This charter was re- 
newed, nine years after, by James I. ; but this 
second charter did not limit the right it accorded 



8 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

to a definite period, but reserved to the king the 
power to cancel it at his will. This was the 
beginning of the famous East India Company, 
which continued in existence until 1858. 

The first dealings of the company were not 
with the main peninsula of Hindostan, which 
now constitutes Victoria's great Oriental empire, 
but with Java, Sumatra, and other islands 
lying in the Asiatic seas. The first English fac- 
tory built on Hindoo soil was that erected at 
Surat, in 161 2. The English were not the first 
Europeans to thus establish themselves in the 
Indies. The discovery by Vasco da Gama of 
the ocean passage to the east by the Cape of Good 
Hope had been followed by several flourishing 
settlements by his countrymen, the Portuguese, 
on the west coast of the peninsula ; and the 
Dutch, who were enterprising and adventurous 
colonists, had also gained a foothold at various 
points. 

The English, therefore, did not establish their 
settlements in Hindostan without resistance. 
Both the Portuguese and the Dutch opposed the 
designs of the company by force of arms. In 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 9 

161 2 a Portuguese fleet made an unsuccessful 
attack on the English factory at Surat. The 
Dutch, however, succeeded in ousting their 
rivals on some of the islands. In spite of these 
obstacles the East India Company not only 
maintained the footholds it had already gained, 
at least on the peninsula, but slowly and steadily 
added to them. It established its factories both 
on the west and on the east coast. In 1640 it 
built Fort St. George, at Madras ; and, twenty- 
two years later, Bombay fell into its hands, as 
the result of the marriage of Charles II. with 
Catherine of Braganza, a princess of Portugal. 
In the latter years of the seventeenth century 
the possessions of the company increased, 
and its advance in prosperity was almost unin- 
terrupted. 

In the reign of William III. its career was for 
a while checked by two causes. A new and rival 
company was organized in England, which 
threatened the exclusive privileges of the old ; and, 
about the same time, the Great Mogul, Aureng- 
zebe, became hostile to its settlements in India. 
The company had already established itself on 



IO ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

the River Hooghly, on which Calcutta, the pres- 
ent lordly metropolis of Hindostan, is built. 
The Great Mogul compelled these settlements to 
be given up. After a while, however, the Great 
Mogul was propitiated, and not only were the 
factories on the Hooghly restored, but a strong 
fort, Fort William, was erected on the site 
where Calcutta now stands. Then, in 1702, 
the old company came to terms with the new ; 
the two were consolidated, and a fresh career 
of prosperity opened before the association thus 
formed and strengthened. 

In course of time the colonies settled around 
the factories of the company, and dotting both 
the west and the east coast of Hindostan, were 
organized into a sort of government, for order 
and self-defence. They were ruled by agents 
appointed by the company ; and each had a 
small mixed military force of Englishmen and 
natives. The Hindoo soldiers thus enlisted 
were called, and are still known as, " Sepoys," 
from the Hindoo word " Sipahi," soldier. 
Down to the middle of the eighteenth century 
the East India Company never seems to have 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. II 

thought of obtaining political dominion over any 
part of Hindostan ; nor does the idea of its con- 
quest seem to have occurred to the English home 
government. The English, indeed, may be said 
to have drifted, or to have been drawn by the 
course of events, into the political possession of 
that splendid dependency. Two principal 
causes operated to bring this about. One of 
these causes was the breaking up of the once 
powerful empire of the Great Mogul into rival 
and jealous States ; the other, the collision be- 
tween the English East India Company and the 
French East India Company, which had also 
acquired footholds on the Hindoo coast. 

The principal settlement of this French com- 
pany was at Pondicherry, south of that of the 
English at Madras. The French had also sta- 
tions on the island of Mauritius. The outbreak 
of the " Seven Years' War" between England 
and France was the signal for a naval attack by 
the French governors of the Mauritius and 
Pondicherry, La Bourdonnais and Dupleix, upon 
Madras. This settlement was taken and occu- 
pied by Dupleix ; but the cessation of war 



12 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

between the two nations resulted, soon after, 
in the restoration of Madras to the English. 
The rivalry between the companies, however, 
had only begun. Dupleix was ambitious and 
enterprising, and coveted the possession of all 
Southern India. 

The Mogul empire was now falling in pieces, 
and Dupleix began to interfere in the quarrels of 
the Hindoo princes, who, here and there, had 
set up separate kingdoms in place of that of the 
Mogul. He deposed the Nabob of Arcot and 
the Viceroy of the Deccan, and replaced them 
by puppets of his own ; and for a while Dupleix 
really ruled a large portion of South-eastern 
India. The rapid growth of the Frenchman's 
power was a formidable menace to the English 
settlements, and the agents of the company 
made haste to support the heir of the deposed 
nabob. The fortune of war was at first hostile 
to the English. A small force, sent to relieve 
Trichinopoly was shut up in that town, and its 
situation became desperate. It was at this critical 
juncture that a man of rare genius arose not only 
to deprive the French of the ascendency they 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 1 3 

had gained, but to lay the broad foundations of 
an English empire throughout Hindostan. 

Robert Clive, the son of a small English 
farmer, had been sent out to take service as a 
clerk of the East India Company, because he 
was so idle and unruly that nothing could be 
done with him at home. He was a " ne'er-do- 
well," whom his father was glad to get rid of 
by packing him off to the other end of the 
world. Clive was so miserable during his first 
years in India that he twice attempted to commit 
suicide. He was homesick, held himself 
haughtily aloof from his brother clerks, and 
fairly detested his work at the desk. He had 
been taken prisoner at Madras by Dupleix, from 
whom he had escaped in disguise. He now ex- 
changed his clerkship for a commission as an 
ensign in a force raised by the company. He 
soon showed such military capacity that he was 
chosen to lead 500 men against Arcot, which 
promptly surrendered to him. Clive was be- 
sieged in this place for two months by an army 
of 10,000 Hindoos, whom he held in check by 
masterly generalship. At last he was relieved 



14 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

by friendly Mahrattas, and, raising the siege of 
Trichinopoly, restored the son of the nabob who 
had been deposed by the French, to the throne 
of Arcot. 

With the rise of Robert Clive began the 
struggle of the English for political dominion 
as well as commercial supremacy in India. In 
a few years Clive was appointed Governor of 
Fort St. David, and entered upon a career of 
conquest. His first operations were directed . to 
the overthrow of Surajah Dowlah, the nabob of 
Bengal. This fierce, cruel and jealous prince, 
who ruled over the richest of the Hindoo States, 
had taken and sacked Calcutta, seized 150 
English, and had thrust them into a horrible 
dungeon, called the " Black Hole." He had put 
others in chains. These barbarous deeds 
aroused Clive to prompt action. He marched 
on Calcutta with 2,400 troops, and compelled 
Surajah to submit to a humiliating peace. 

But no peace could be lasting so long as 
Surajah ruled in Bengal. Clive resolved to 
depose him. A great battle was fought at 
Plassey, June 23, 1757, between Clive, at the 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 15 

head of 3.000 men, and the nabob, at the head 
of full 50,000. The Hindoos were utterly de- 
feated ; Surajah was taken captive, and was 
soon after slain in prison. Then Clive met and 
dispersed the army of the Great Mogul's son at 
Patna. He placed Meer Jaffier, a tool of the 
English, on the Bengalee throne, and this prince 
in return granted to the English a considerable 
tract of country. Clive next repulsed and anni- 
hilated a Dutch fleet which entered the Hooghly, 
and soon succeeded in firmly establishing English 
power on that river. 

Further south the English were still in conflict 
with the French East India Company. In 1758 
the French, under the command of Count 
Tollendal, took Fort St. David and destroyed it. 
They then advanced upon Madras. But that 
town successfully resisted their impetuous assault. 
Tollendal was forced to return discomfited to the 
French post at Pondicherry. His invasion of 
the Madras country was the last effort of the 
French to suppress their English rivals. Two 
years later Tollendal was completely defeated 
by Eyre Coote at Wandewash, and this event 



1 6 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

was speedily followed by the capture of Pondi- 
cherry itself by the English. Thus came to an 
end the French dominion on the eastern shores 
of Hindostan. The English Company now 
held undisputed sway at all the great stations 
along that coast. 

The policy of encroaching upon the native 
princes and states, so vigorously begun and 
prosecuted by Clive, was actively and almost 
continuously followed up after his departure 
from India. The council of the company 
at Calcutta had become a formidable politi- 
cal as well as military power, with its es- 
tablished codes of law and its largely increased 
army of well-disciplined troops of mixed 
English and Sepoys. The Great Mogul, 
whose empire had been shattered into frag- 
ments, but who cherished a lingering hope 
of restoring it, marched against the English 
in Bengal with 50,000 men, only to be ig- 
nominiously routed by the company's troops, 
comprising less than 20,000, under Munroe. 
But now a state of confusion and corruption 
had grown up in the affairs of the com- 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 1 7 

pany, and Clive was once more summoned to 
India. 

Clive's return was the signal not only for 
energetic reforms in the company's adminis- 
tration but for renewed encroachments upon 
the power of the native princes. He promptly 
brought the Great Mogul and the Nabob of 
Oude to terms. Restoring the latter to his 
authority in Oude, on condition that he would 
remain subject to English influence, Clive 
persuaded the Mogul to give up to the English 
the three great provinces of Bengal, Orissa, 
and Bahar, in consideration of an annual 
subsidy of £260,000. Clive's efforts to reform 
the disordered affairs of the company were 
equally vigorous, and were for a time successful. 
He put a stop to the private trading of the 
company's servants, and to their acceptance 
of bribes from native rulers. He also sup- 
pressed with strong arm a mutiny among 
the company's troops at Monghir. 

But when, in 1766, Clive finally returned to 
England, the disastrous effects of his absence 
were speedily felt. A conflict took place with 



1 8 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Hyder AH, the warlike Rajah of Mysore, in 
which neither side won any signal advantage. 
A terrible famine spread over north-eastern 
Hindostan, which swept away a third of 
the population of Bengal. Meanwhile the 
affairs of the company, no longer guided by 
the administrative genius and resolute will of 
Clive, went from bad to worse. Cruelty, op- 
pression, greed, perfidy and misrule marked 
many of the proceedings of the English. The 
reforms achieved by Clive were lost sight of, 
and corruption and disorder again ran riot 
among the settlements. 

At last the British Parliament, for the first 
time, was compelled to seriously interfere 
with the powers and status of the East India 
Company. A law, proposed by Lord North, 
was passed in 1773, by which the three great 
settlements — or "presidencies," as they had 
come to be called — of Bengal, Madras, and 
Bombay, were combined under a " Governor- 
general " of India ; a council of four members 
was appointed to act as the Governor-general's 
advisers; and a Supreme court of justice was 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 19 

established at Calcutta, that town being desig- 
nated as the capital of all the Indian dependen- 
cies. At this time the Governor of Bengal was a 
man destined to become world-famous — War- 
ren Hastings; and he was selected by the 
company as the first Governor-general of India. 

The rule of Warren Hastings in India covered 
a period of eleven years. He assumed office as 
Governor-general in 1773, and he returned 
finally to England in 1784. In extending and 
supplementing the task of bringing the peninsula 
under English sway he followed vigorously in 
the footsteps of Clive. Both in his military 
and in his civil administration Hastings revealed 
wonderful ability, persistency, and courage. A 
large portion of his official term was occupied 
by his wars with native princes. A league was 
formed by the various Mahratta tribes, supported 
by the Nizam of the Deccan and Hyder Ali, 
Rajah of Mysore, to attack the English at Bom- 
bay on the west, and Madras on the east. After 
a long struggle, Hastings made peace with the 
Mahrattas, without loss of territory or prestige. 

Hyder Ali, of Mysore, still held out. He was 



20 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

the most obstinate and most formidable foe of 
the English. He threatened Madras, and at first 
defeated one after another the forces which were 
sent against him. Finally, Sir Eyre Coote con- 
fronted him with a well-appointed army ; and, 
although Hyder Ali was seconded by a French 
fleet and French soldiers, the English general 
held him at bay. This war came to an end by 
reason of Hyder Ali's death. His son, Tippoo, 
who afterwards showed that he inherited his 
father's powers and hostility to the English, re- 
treated with his army to Mysore, and peace 
for a while ensued. 

The administration of Warren Hastings, 
although marred by occasional cruelty and 
crime, was on the whole wise, just, and power- 
ful. He revived the reforms of Clive, improved 
the method of levying and gathering native 
taxes, abolished many of the abuses which had 
sprung up among the English, built on yet 
broader foundations the British empire in India, 
did much to improve the condition of the natives 
under his rule, and left the peninsula in a con- 
dition of peace. His spirit penetrated every 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 21 

distant settlement and presidency. He left a 
code of rules for the guidance of courts which 
amply confirms his ability as a great law-maker ; 
and he suppressed the vast system of bribery, 
which Clive had only temporarily arrested. His 
council of four was almost always opposing 
him, and throwing obstacles in his way. But 
Hastings, with his powerful will and his 
greater knowledge of Indian affairs, overruled 
them, and carried out his schemes in spite of 
them. On his return to England, Warren 
Hastings was impeached before the House of 
Lords for high crimes and misdemeanors. 
That impeachment is familiar as a great historic 
scene and event. Suffice it here to say that after 
it had dragged its slow length along for nearly 
five years, Hastings was acquitted, and permitted 
to rest in peace for the remainder of his days. 

Parliament now found it necessary to take 
vigorously in hand the regulation of what had 
become a vast Oriental empire. The East India 
Company could not be allowed tc exercise its 
powers unchecked. Its exclusive powers must be 
modified. The home government must interfere 



22 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

for the protection of its subjects, of the natives, 
and of commerce. After an ineffectual attempt 
to deal with the question by the North ministry, 
an India bill, proposed by William Pitt, was duly 
passed into law. This measure established a 
home " Board of Control,'"' with its location in 
London, which had power to approve or annul 
the acts of the Directors of the East India Com- 
pany. The President of this Board of Control 
was to be a member of the ministry, and its 
other members were to belong to the Privy 
Council. Thus the political administration of 
India was brought within the sphere of that of 
England herself. Henceforth, the home govern- 
ment assumed virtual control over the « distant 
dependency. 

Under the successors of Hastings — Lord 
Cornwallis, Sir John Shore, the Marquis 
Wellesley, Sir George Barlow, Lord Minto, and 
the Marquis of Hastings — the policy of sub- 
jugating the native princes, of extending the 
limits of English dominion, and of establishing an 
English system of laws and administration, on 
the whole steadily continued. In a bitter war 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 23 

with Tippoo, the son of Hyder AH, Cornwallis 
succeeded in overcoming that obstinate warrior, 
and in extending English authority over more 
than one half of the central kingdom of Mysore. 
Cornwallis (who was the same Cornwallis who 
had delivered up his sword to Washington at 
Yorktown) proved an able and reforming Gov- 
ernor-general. He corrected the abuses of the 
land tax, and did much to protect the ryots, or 
peasants, from the oppression of the great land- 
holders. In the Marquis Wellesley, too, — the 
elder brother of the Duke of Wellington, — India 
secured a very able and vigorous ruler. 

Another fierce war occurred during Welles- 
ley's administration. Tippoo proved that al- 
though defeated he had not been annihilated. 
The French, with whom England was once 
again at war, tried to form a league among the 
native princes against the dominant race ; but 
they did not succeed. It was in this second war 
with Tippoo that Wellington won his first mili- 
tary laurels. The final scene of the struggle was 
the memorable siege of Seringapatam, which 
was impetuously stormed and taken by the 



24 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

English. Tippoo himself was slain while 
fighting with desperate valor at one of the gate- 
ways of the fortress. Mysore, the great region 
of the Deccan, and the Carnatic, now came per- 
manently under English influence and protection. 

But now the Mahrattas broke out into renewed 
resistance to English rule. One of the most 
brilliant campaigns in the history of British 
India ensued. Col. Wellesley, afterwards Duke 
of Wellington, inflicted a tremendous defeat 
upon the Mahratta chief, Sindia, at Assayi, 
and Gen. Lake made a progress of unbroken 
conquest from Sutlej to Delhi and Agra. The 
result was that the strength of the Mahrattas 
was completely broken. Under Lord Minto, 
who became Governor-general in 1807, the 
English boundary was extended to the River 
Sutlej, and the islands of Bourbon and Mauri- 
tius were wrested from the French, which de- 
stroyed the last hold of the French in the' Indian 
seas. 

In 18 13 a new charter under fresh restric- 
tions was granted to the East India Company. 
Its exclusive right to trade in India was with- 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 25 

drawn, and that trade was thrown open to all 
English merchants ; while, for the first time, 
missionaries were allowed to pursue their minis- 
trations in Hindostan. The Marquis of Hast- 
ings, who, in the same year — 1S13 — became 
Governor-general, soon found himself involved 
in wars with the Nepaulese, north of the 
Ganges, and with the Pindarees in Central 
India. The English forces, with their native 
allies, prevailed in both localities. Nepaul was 
compelled to make such a peace as to relieve the 
English of any fear thenceforth of their hostility, 
and, although the marauding Pindarees were 
aided by the Peshwa, the chief of all the 
Mahratta tribes, they were finally dispersed, and 
the River Indus now became the western frontier 
of the English dominion in India. 

The able rule of the Marquis of Hastings 
confirmed and established the supremacy of the 
English power in India. He effected many re- 
forms both in the moral and material condition 
of the semi-barbarous races over whom he held, 
in most respects, a beneficent sway. For many 
years the British administration was undisturbed 



26 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

by serious conflict, and the work of consolidat- 
ing the empire went steadily on. A war with 
the Burmese was speedily brought to a term by 
Lord Amherst ; and his successor, Lord William 
Bentinck, succeeded in suppressing the horrible 
Hindoo rite of the suttee and the murderous 
sect of the Thugs. Later, Lord Auckland's 
attack upon the Afghans, resulting in the whole- 
sale massacre of English troops in the Khyber 
pass, threatened to disturb the rule of the Eng- 
lish in Western India ; but the prompt action of 
the next Governor-general, Lord Ellenbo rough, 
in promptly punishing the Afghans by taking 
and sacking Cabool, put an end to this danger. 
In the years between 1842 and 1856 Scinde 
was conquered and annexed to the English 
dominions. The Sikhs, after a brief but bloody 
warfare, were subdued, and an English resident 
and garrison were stationed at Lahore, in the 
Punjab ; the Sutlej provinces and the Jullundur 
Doab were annexed ; Ceylon, the Punjab', Pegu, 
Nagpoor and Oude came under English suprem- 
acy, and a second Sikh and a second Burmese war 
were successfully fought by the Anglo-Indian 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 27 

troops. In the course of this period, too, many 
internal improvements were made in the vast 
empire. Under the rule of the Marquis of Dal- 
housie, especially (1848-1855), great public 
works were carried to completion. Uniform 
and cheap postal services were established ; rail- 
ways were built ; telegraph wires were erected ; 
and the execution of justice and the laws was 
extended through many disordered States and 
provinces. 

The next great event in the history of British 
India was one of dark and dismal import. In 
1857, during the administration of Viscount Can- 
ning, the great Sepoy mutiny broke out, fol- 
lowed by a series of frightful tragedies and 
sufferings. Discontent at English rule, a super- 
stition about cartridges, the intrigues of princes 
who had been deprived of sovereignty, conspir- 
acy on the part of the Mohammedans, were 
all alleged as causes of this formidable outbreak. 
A Sepoy cavalry regiment at Meerut, not far 
from Delhi, refused to obey orders on parade. 
The mutineers were promptly imprisoned ; but 
other native troops now rose in revolt, and took 



28 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

possession of Delhi. Their example was fol- 
lowed in various parts of Central India. Nana 
Sahib, who claimed the rank of Peshwa, put 
himself at the head of the rising, and took and 
massacred the garrison at Cawnpore. 

The siege of Lucknow speedily followed, and 
the heroism with which its devoted defenders 
held out against their savage and swarming foes, 
until they were at last relieved by the dauntless 
Havelock, is one of the most thrilling stories 
in modern warfare. Sir Colin Campbell finally 
raised the siege of Lucknow, and by the summer 
of 1858 the area of rebellion, with the exception 
of Oude, had been recovered. Oude fell early in 
1859, and then the retribution of the English fell 
upon the leading spirits of the revolt. Tantia 
Toppee, the Mahratta chief, was hanged ; and 
the King of Delhi, the last of the great Moguls, 
and the last descendant of the house of Timour 
Tamerlane, was transported, and kept prisoner 
in Pegu until his death. 

The immediate result of the Sepoy rebellion 
was the direct assumption of the rule of India by 
the British government itself. By an act of 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 29 

Parliament which became a law in August, 
1858, the Queen of England was declared to be 
the sovereign of India, and the East India Com- 
pany, after a wonderful career of two and a half 
centuries, ceased to exist. A new executive de- 
partment was created to manage Indian affairs. 
At its head was placed a Secretary of State for 
India, who became a member of the English 
cabinet. Thenceforth, the Governors-general 
were appointed by the Crown, became known, 
unofficially, as "Viceroys," and were placed 
under the orders of the Secretary of State. In 
1879 the Queen was formally proclaimed 
" Empress of India." 

It was by the steps which have thus been 
rapidly traced that the vast and noble penin- 
sula of Hindostan, with its manifold natural 
productions, its fine manufactures and rich 
merchandise, its once civilized peoples, its rare 
mementos of ancient magnificence and power, 
its superb monuments of extinct glory, came into 
the possession of the remote little island of 
Britain ; it was thus that a new civilization 
and a new importance in the world were con- 



30 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

ferred upon its teeming millions ; and that 
wealth and power have, for many generations, 
been reaped by the conquering race. 

The English methods of conquest in India 
were often harsh and cruel. In the course 
of their advance the English committed many 
acts of severity, injustice, and oppression. But 
no one can doubt that, on the whole, the English 
rule in India has been wise and beneficent. It 
has planted European civilization in an immense 
Asiatic State, and among 200,000,000 of Asiatic 
peoples ; it has developed the resources of a coun- 
try abounding in the materials of an almost fabu- 
lous commercial wealth ; it has built railways, 
high-roads, telegraphs ; it has conferred upon 
ancient capitals of barbaric empires sanitary sys- 
tems and artistic beauties ; it has spread educa- 
tion, and insured justice everywhere, by well- 
organized courts of law ; it has suppressed many 
barbarous rites and customs ; has elevated the 
moral and material condition of the natives, and 
has secured them peace, protection and orderly 
government. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 31 



II. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 

The system of government which has been 
established in India by its English rulers is 
worth a brief description. It is despotic in 
character. At the summit of this government is, 
of course, the Queen of England and Empress 
of India. Under the sovereign the Secretary of 
State for India is the ruler of the dependency. 
But the policy of the Secretary of State in gov- 
erning the dependency is determined by him 
in concert with his colleagues, the Prime Minis- 
ter and other members of the British Cabinet. 
There is still another power, behind these and 
superior to them, which has a supreme voice in 
the government of India, as indeed, of all other 
dependencies of the Crown. This is Parliament, 
or rather as a reality it is the House of Com- 
mons. The will of Parliament, of which the 



32 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Cabinet is the executive agent, finally deter- 
mines all the policies of the British empire. 

The Secretary of State for India is aided in 
his functions by a council of fifteen members, 
who are appointed as vacancies arise by him- 
self. A majority of this council must comprise 
members who have resided for at least ten years 
in India. These councillors are appointed for 
terms of ten years. They cannot sit in the 
House of Commons, and can only be removed 
by joint vote of both houses of Parliament. The 
Council for India is charged with the various 
departments of business connected with the de- 
pendency, and for this purpose is divided by the 
Secretary of State into various committees. A 
further regulation concerning the Council is that 
it must meet at least once a week through- 
out the year, and that a quorum of five members 
must always be present. 

The Governor-general, or, as he is quite as 
often called, the "Viceroy," is the supreme 
executive head of the government of India on 
the spot. He represents there, and stands 
for, the Empress. He acts under the instruc- 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 33 

tions of the Secretary of State ; but, aside 
from this, his office is almost that of an abso- 
lute despot. He is appointed for a term of 
six years, and his salary is $125,000 a year; 
besides which, he is allowed a sum of 
$60,000 a year more, to maintain a condition 
of state befitting his dignity. The Viceroy 
is almost invariably chosen from among the 
British nobility ; and wealth, executive ex- 
perience, and tested ability are regarded as 
especial qualifications for the post. During 
the past one hundred years only three Gov- 
ernors-general have been commoners. The 
present holder of the office is the brilliant 
and able Earl of Dufferin. 

Like the Secretary of State in London the 
Viceroy in Calcutta has his advisory council. 
It is a sort of miniature cabinet. To its six 
members is confided the administration re- 
spectively of the finances, foreign affairs, war 
department, the interior, and the public works 
of the empire. The commander-in-chief of 
the Anglo-Indian army is added to the council 
as an extraordinary member, by reason of 



34 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

his office. The members of the Council are 
appointed by the Secretary of State, and are 
thus in a sense independent of the Viceroy. 
There is also in India what is called a " Legis- 
lative Council." This is formed of the mem- 
bers of the executive council described above, 
and from six to twelve additional delegates, 
who are appointed by the Viceroy. The 
function of this body is to make laws and 
regulations in public session ; but of course 
their acts are subject to the approval of the 
supreme executive. 

Of the three great Indian presidencies, — 
Bengal, Bombay, and Madras — Bengal is under 
the direct rule of the Viceroy, who has his official 
residence at Calcutta, its capital. The other two 
presidencies are ruled by governors, who, with 
their councils, are appointed by the Crown, but 
are under the Viceroy's control. Besides these 
governors of presidencies, the districts of 
Bengal, the North-west Provinces, and the 
Punjab are administered by lieutenant-governors, 
and those of Oude, Assam, the Central Prov- 
inces, and British Burmah, by English officials 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 35 

who are styled " Chief Commissioners," all of 
whom are appointed by the Viceroy, and are 
directly responsible to him. All the States of 
India under British rule are divided into prov- 
inces, each of which is administered by a com- 
missioner ; and each province is subdivided into 
districts, over which are placed magistrates 
(usually called "Collector Magistrates"), as- 
sisted by deputy collectors and assistant magis- 
trates. These magistrates usually are judges. 

The governmental system of India cannot be 
comprehended, unless the distinction is borne 
in mind which exists between the States which 
are directly governed by the English, and those 
which are feudatory and dependent, yet which 
are still presided over by native princes. Of those 
under direct English government, the principal 
are the three presidencies, the Punjab, Oude, and 
the North-west, Central, and Lower Provinces. 
The chief states governed by native rulers, but 
under what is called British "protection," — 
that is, feudatory and really subject to the Eng- 
lish, — are theDeccan, Mysore, Rajpootna, Orissa, 
Baroda, Cutch, Seik States, Cashmere, Travan- 



$6 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

core, Scinde, and Rewa. The Island of Ceylon, 
lying off the south-east coast of the Carnatic, is 
wholly outside the Indian government, and has 
an administration of its own appointed by the 
Crown. 

The method by which the Viceroy holds in 
dependence the States still ruled over by native 
princes is diplomatic rather than direct. At 
the court of each of these princes is stationed a 
quasi-diplomatic agent, called the " British 
Resident." He is established there as the repre- 
sentative of the Viceroy ; and his influence with 
the prince is naturally irresistible. The relations 
between the dominant and the dependent power 
are settled by treaties and agreements ; not by 
direct commands. According to the treaties 
which the princes have signed, their dependence 
upon the Anglo-Indian government is acknowl- 
edged ; they are forbidden to make war or peace 
with each other, or with any other power ; to 
enter into any diplomatic relations whatever ; to 
establish, beyond certain restrictions agreed upon, 
a military force, or to allow r any European to 
reside at their courts without the explicit consent 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. tf 

of the Viceroy. Moreover, the power of de- 
throning a prince who governs his state badly 
rests in the Viceroy's hands. Some of the 
princes do, and others do not, pay an annual 
tribute into the Calcutta treasury. 

The civil service of the Indian empire is es- 
tablished, like that of England, on the system of 
competitive examinations and promotions by 
merit and seniority. It is divided into two 
branches, the covenanted and the uncovenanted 
civil service. The former comprises the higher 
civil service of the administration, is composed 
entirely of Englishmen, and is supplied from 
those who have passed examinations held in 
London. The latter service, for the lower grades 
of civil work, admits Eurasians (half-breeds of 
English and Indian blood) and natives. 

A word may properly be added here with ref- 
erence to the finances of British India. These 
are under the control of the Secretary of State at 
London, and certain parts of the Indian 
revenue are paid into the English exchequer. 
The main source of the revenues of India is the 
land tax. The latest reports show that the 



38 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

revenue of the empire for the year 1884-5 
amounted to £70,560,000 ; the expenditure for that 
year to £70,241,000. Of the revenue stated, the 
land tax alone yielded nearly £22,000,000. The 
revenue from other sources shows that opium 
yielded the highest sum next to the land tax, 
namely, £8,600,000 in round figures ; then 
came salt, £6,300,000 ; then, excise, £3,800,000 ; 
and, fourthly, stamps, £3,500,000. The total 
debt of India, existing in India itself and in 
England, is £160,000,000. 

The English rule in India has been highly 
promotive of the spread of education among the 
swarming millions of the Hindoos. Schools for 
teaching English have been founded in every 
province throughout the empire, each province 
having its school director and inspectors. Higher 
education is supplied by seminaries, colleges, and 
universities, supported in whole or in part by 
the state. There are over 100,000 institu- 
tions of education in India, of which 100 are 
colleges of a high grade, and 98,000 are primary 
schools. The number of pupils is nearly 
3,000,000. There are three universities, one at 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 39 

the seat of each presidency, which grant degrees, 
and contain over 3,000 students. No figures 
could more strikingly demonstrate the benefi- 
cence, vigor, and liberality of the English mas- 
ters of India in elevating the intellectual 
standard of the subject races. 

Other splendid proofs of the civilizing results 
of the British rule in India may be found in the 
development of its commerce and trade, the 
rapid extension of its railway and postal systems, 
and the stimulus given to its manufacturing and 
agricultural industries. It appears that the im- 
ports of the empire in 1883-4 amounted to £63,- 
000,000, and that its exports reached the 
dazzling figure of .£89,000,000. Of these im- 
ports and exports over one-half is to be credited 
to Calcutta and Bombay. Great Britain, to a 
very large extent, absorbs this huge volume of 
commerce, exporting into India goods to the 
amount of over £40,000,000, and exporting 
from India over £35,000,000. The United 
States, it is interesting to note, is fourth on the 
list of nations dealing with India, our exports 
into India reaching about £1,000,000 yearly, 



4° ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

and our exports therefrom, about £3,500,000. 
Our imports into India are greater than those 
of Germany, Austria and Belgium combined, 
and more than double those of France. 

The present railway system of India was set 
on foot in 1869, though projects had been 
started and some progress in the building of 
lines made before that period. The State under- 
took the task in that year, and the great railway 
lines have been built by State enterprise and ex- 
penditure. There are seven of these principal 
through lines : the Great Indian Peninsula, the 
Madras, the Oude and Rohilkund, the Scinde, 
Punjab and Delhi, the South Indian, and the 
Eastern Bengal. In 1853, only 20 miles of rail- 
way were open throughout India. In 1884 
there were nearly 11,000 open, while 2,000 
more were in process of completion. In 1883 
65,000,000 of passengers were conveyed on 
Indian railways, and the gross receipts footed 
up $16,400,000. It is not easy to estimate the 
enormous extent to which this rapid increase in 
the facilities of transportation have developed the 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 41 

industries and enhanced the material prosperity 
of the empire. 

The postal service of India reveals a similar 
rapid growth in efficiency and use. The total 
number of letters, papers and parcels distrib- 
uted in 1882-3 was 186,620,569. Of these, 
168,119,398 were letters and postal cards; 
14,075,667 were newspapers ; and 4,400,000 
were parcels and packages. These were sent 
through 13,000 post-offices. The postal revenue 
amounted to £971,000, and the expenditure to 
.£983,000, so that the postal service shows a 
small deficit. This, however, has steadily di- 
minished from year to year, and the balance will 
soon be the other way. The mails were carried 
over 61,000 miles, for the most part still by boats 
and "runners," — 9,000 miles only of postal 
transportation being as yet done by the railways. 
The telegraph wires have been carried over 
22,000 miles, conveying in 1883 nearly 2,000,000 
messages, costing £625,000, and giving employ- 
ment to 324 offices. 



42 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 



III. 
THE MILITARY RESOURCES OF INDIA. 

In view of the possibility that a war may 
sooner or later arise between Russia and Eng- 
land, in the East, the military strength of the 
Indian empire becomes a subject of practical 
interest. What forces can England collect in 
India itself, with which to oppose by force 
of arms a Russian advance ? The latest report, 
which gives the total of the Indian armament for 
1884-5, states that the British forces garrisoned 
there comprise 61,500 men. Of these, 11,260 
are royal artillery, 4,280 are cavalry of the line, 
and 45,500 are infantry of the line. The native 
army, officered mainly by Englishmen, com- 
prises 127,400 men, of whom 103,700 are 
infantry. The combined British and native 
force may, therefore, be estimated at about 
190,000 men. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 43 

But besides this standing army under the com- 
mander-in-chief of India, the Hindoo States, 
feudatory and independent, have forces which 
combined number no less than 275,000 men, 
with 3,000 guns ; while the Mohammedan States 
have 75,000. All the native forces, therefore, 
may be stated at not less than 350,000. Of these 
forces, Nepaul has 100,000 ; Hyderabad, 44,000 ; 
Cashmere, 27,000 ; Oodeypore, 20,000 ; Gwa- 
lior, 11,000; Baroda, 15,000 ; Jeypore, 18,000; 
Bhurtpore, 11,500; and Indore, 8,000. It is 
probable that nearly if not quite all of these 
forces would be at the disposal of England in 
the event of war with Russia. Such a war 
would be one of protection and defence to the 
Indian States themselves. There is every reason 
to believe that the rulers of the great States of 
Hyderabad, Baroda, Mysore, Cashmere, infi- 
nitely prefer the rule of England to that of the 
Cossack ; and this feeling is evidently almost 
universal among the lesser native principali- 
ties. 

Should war ensue, therefore, Great Britain 
has in reserve, in India itself, a possible force of 



44 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

no less than 550,000 men. It must be added 
that a large portion of the native soldiers are 
well disciplined and are good combatants. The 
Sikhs of the Punjab, for instance, are perhaps 
the best Asiatic soldiers. They are thoroughly 
loyal to British rule, and have on many fields 
demonstrated both that loyalty and their high 
military qualities. In anticipation of trouble 
with Russia, and in order to hold Afghanistan 
secure from encroachments, the English have 
recently posted an army of 20,000 men and 32 
guns at Quettah, in south-eastern Afghanistan, 
which place commands the Bolan pass to India, 
and is connected by railway with the valley of 
the Indus. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 45 



IV. 
THE RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA. 

The story of the Russian advance through 
Central Asia is not a new one ; nor is it recently 
that the suspicions of Great Britain have first 
been aroused by that advance. For many years 
Napoleonic wars and French revolutions, the 
rise of new kingdoms on the ruins of old, wars 
of Algiers, of the Crimea, of Italy, of Mexico, 
of Bohemia, of France, civil war in America, 
Egyptian troubles, quickly succeeding, have 
cast the events in Asia into a dim background. 
Even England, especially watchful and jealous 
as she is of her Oriental empire, has been so 
busy in other directions as to lose sight of the 
far-off danger for long intervals. As a fact, 
Russia has pursued for nearly three centuries 
her vast schemes of conquest and aggrandize- 
ment in Northern and Central Asia. Steadily, 



46 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

almost stealthily, she has crept eastward to the 
bleak Pacific coast of Kamtchatka, and south- 
ward to the fertile slopes of the Thian Shan and 
the Bedoor Tagh and to the borders of North- 
western Afghanistan ; until now her Asiatic 
dominions comprised more than one-third of the 
largest of the world's continents. 

The sway of Peter the Great, at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century, included the greater 
part of Siberia. Whatever may be thought of 
the authenticity of that great monarch's will, 
which enjoined upon his successors the ambi- 
tious task of long advances southward from 
Siberia, and the conquest of Constantinople, it 
is at least certain that Peter's bold and enter- 
prising spirit foresaw the possibility that the 
Russian dominion would extend even beyond 
the limits to which it has, in our day, attained. 
No fact of modern history, indeed, is more stir- 
ring and significant than the slow, but ever- 
steady, persistent, ever-onward encroachment 
of Russian power, continued for many genera- 
tions, towards the confines of British India. 

A glance at the map of Central Asia — as the 




Miles fo One. ln<A 
The figure •> lhui-2i}o ihou the height fare 



RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN AFGHANISTAN. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. Afl 

region is vaguely called which lies between 
Persia and the Caspian on the west, Asiatic 
Russia on the north, Afghanistan and India on 
the south, and Kashgar and the Chinese limits on 
the west, — will at once show what a formidable 
area the Russians have traversed. They have 
passed over more than 2,000 miles across dreary 
wastes and difficult mountain ranges, far beyond 
the access of railways and telegraphs, into peril- 
ous wildernesses peopled by savage and 
warlike tribes ; along the valleys of far-extend- 
ing rivers, and to the seats of once proud and 
powerful Asiatic empires ; until to-day the 
Russian outposts are within sight of the giant 
range of the Hindoo Koosh on the one side, and 
Russian garrisons occupy Merv and Sarakhs on 
the other. 

The two great rivers of Central Asia, the 
Oxus and the Jaxartes, are hers throughout 
almost the entire range of their navigable 
waters. The two great inland seas of Central 
Asia, the Sea of Aral and the Sea of Balkash, 
are also hers. The two ancient historic cities 
of Tashkent and Samarkand are ruled over by 



48 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Russian governors, and are "protected" by 
Russian troops. The three powerful Khanates 
of Turkistan — Khiva, Bokhara, and Khokand 
— acknowledge, though no doubt grudgingly, 
the supremacy of the White Czar. The Russian 
soldier has planted his foot on territory which 
has been supposed to be well within the limits 
of Afghanistan ; and no one can doubt that, 
so long as the Russian arms are established 
at Merv, Sarakhs, above the Rabat pass, and 
in the Murghab valley, there will always exist 
a danger and menace to the Afghan dominions. 
Russia has only been able to make these vast 
conquests by degrees and at long intervals. Be- 
tween Semipatalinsk and Akmolinsk, the south- 
ernmost of the Siberian provinces, and the rich 
and fertile Khanate of Khokand, lie the vast and 
dreary deserts of the "Great" and "Little 
Hordes " of the Kirghiz. Between the Caspian 
and the Khivan capital are other deserts, which 
once, at least, proved a waste too formidable to 
be crossed even by a well-equipped Russian 
army. Nature seems to have thrown every 
difficulty within her resources in the way of the 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 49 

Russian military progress. Yet by patience, 
perseverance and repeated effort, Russia has 
absorbed the Central Asiatic provinces one by 
one, as the Austrian emperor did the artichoke 
leaf by leaf, until but two sovereign States, of 
formidable proportions, separate her dominions 
from those of Britain in India. These are Kash- 
gar and Afghanistan. 

Russia began her long career of Asiatic con- 
quest t towards the close of the sixteenth century. 
Theodore I., who was afterwards poisoned, was 
Czar of Muscovy, which did not become the 
Russian empire till more than a century after- 
wards. Elizabeth was reigning in England, and 
far from dreaming of the gorgeous Eastern empire 
over which her successors were to rule, was en- 
gaged in defeating Philip's Armada. The first 
advance was made in the extreme north. Step by 
step the territories occupied by the nomad tribes 
of Siberia were absorbed ; then the Cossacks of 
the Don, settled around the northern shores of the 
Caspian, were conquered ; the Ural Tartars were 
brought under the rule of the Czar ; and colonies 



SO ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

were established at Perm and other points east- 
ward and south-eastward of Muscovy. 

By the close of the seventeenth century the 
dominion of Russia had stretched completely 
across the dreary expanses of Siberia, and had 
included the still more bleak and distant country 
of Kamtchatka. Peter the Great succeeded to 
an empire which had become, at least in extent 
of territory, more Asiatic than European. His 
sway included the indefinite hordes of Turanian 
tribes scattered between the rivers Ishim and 
Irtish and the northern boundaries of Asia. 
Peter was the most ambitious, the ablest and 
the most civilized Czar who had ever sat on the 
Muscovite throne. He formed vast projects of 
conquest, which comprehended not only that 
portion of Asia lying between the Caspian and 
China, but also Constantinople and modern 
Turkey. 

Siberia and the northern shores of the Caspian 
were Russia's ; it remained to extend her domin- 
ions to the more fertile south, to cross the great 
arid steppes occupied by the Kirghiz hordes, 
and finally to found Russian seats of commerce 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 51 

on the southern Caspian, the Sea of Aral, and 
even the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Such 
was the vista of enterprise which the injunction of 
Peter spread before succeeding Czars. It seemed 
a gigantic undertaking. It must necessarily be 
the work of generations. The conquests must be 
made, as that of Siberia had been made, piece- 
meal. The progress of Russia in the lines set 
down by Peter has been indeed slow, painful, in- 
terrupted ; but on the whole it has been steadily 
onward. From the time of Peter to that of 
Nicholas this progress was scarcely perceptible. 
Catherine II. and Alexander I. found themselves 
absorbed in European affairs, and had their hands 
full in the wars which, at brief intervals in the 
eighteenth century and the early part of the nine- 
teenth, shook the Western continent. The more 
peaceful era after the final overthrow of Napolean 
enabled the Czar to prosecute the long-postponed 
objects of ambition in Asia. 

Something had, however, been done between 
1750 and 1830 to prepare the way for future 
operations. A glance at the map of Central 
Asia will reveal that between the frontiers of 



52 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Siberia and Turkistan, there lie vast expanses of 
steppe and desert, broken but rarely by rivers 
and mountain ranges, and divided towards the 
west by the Sea of Aral and a long narrow range 
approaching it from the north. This desert 
waste has always been occupied by fierce Kirghiz 
nomads : on the western side by the Kirghiz of 
the "Little Horde," and on the east (between 
Siberia and Khokand) by the Kirghiz of the 
" Great Horde." It was Russia's task to con- 
quer and obtain unhampered passage across 
these immense deserts. It was no less an ob- 
stacle than this which lay between her and the 
fruitful promised lands watered by the Jaxartes 
and the Oxus. 

The process by which Russia has finally ob- 
tained the mastery of that great region was the 
same as that employed in Siberia. She began 
by establishing a line of military posts within 
easy distance of her frontiers. Then she sent 
emissaries among the tribes just beyond, who 
persuaded them to cease from their wandering 
ways, and under Russian protection and alliance, 
to settle down in permanent villages. A time 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 53 

would always come when these nearest tribes, 
threatened by their savage neighbors on the other 
side, appealed to Russia to defend them ; and, 
before they knew it, they were not only defended 
but quietly included within the Eastern dominions 
of the Czar. 

Then a further line of military stations would 
be established, and the contiguous tribes would 
come, first under Russian protection, and speed- 
ily, at a moment when resistance would have 
been sheer folly, under Russian government. 
By these means, which required time, but were 
certain in their operation so long as the strength 
and treasure of Russia held out, she had reduced 
by 1830 the Kirghizes of the Little Horde to 
vassalage. All this was, moreover, so cleverly 
done as to attach to Russia the real respect and 
hearty allegiance of the Kirghiz tribes ; and 
this has been an advantage of the utmost impor- 
tance in the pursuit of her designs farther south. 

To bring into clear view the position of Russia 
in Central Asia forty years ago — since which f 
period her advance has been far more rapid, 
effective, and alarming to England than had pre/ 



54 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

viously been the case — it is necessary to narrate 
briefly her relations with the great Khanate of 
Khiva. Khiva, or Khwarizm, finds its limits 
between the Caspian on the west, the Sea of 
Aral and the desert of Ust-Urt on the north, the 
Oxus or Amu river on the east, and Persia and 
Cabool on the south. It has- been the scene of 
innumerable wars, incursions, revolutions ; con- 
quered and reconquered by rival and turbulent 
tribes ; the prize contended for by great chief- 
tains, now of the Buddhist and now of the 
Mohammedan faith, from Timour Timerlane to 
Kahim Khan ; historic ground, where Alex- 
ander's legions are said to have trod ; and which, 
as a necessary entrej)6t between Asia and 
Europe, must be held by the power which 
assumes to control the intercontinental com- 
merce of the future. For a while during the 
last century, Khiva was governed by Kirghiz 
rulers friendly to Russian progress ; but early 
in the present century, the Uzbegs, a tribe 
bitterly and even cruelly hostile to Russia, drove 
out the Kirghiz " legates," and established over 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 55 

their four tribes princes of their own race, and 
an Uzbeg Khan over the whole country. 

Russia saw the inestimable advantage of 
getting control of Khiva at the very beginning 
of her career of Asiatic conquest. Peter the 
Great tried to subjugate it as long ago as 17* 7* 
The country was inaccessible from the side of 
the Ural, for there the Kirghiz Horde interposed 
an impenetrable barrier. Peter commissioned 
one of his generals, Prince Bekovitch, to conquer 
Khiva. Bekovitch set out from the north-eastern 
shores of the Caspian, at the head of six thousand 
men, and after a painful inarch of nearly three 
months reached the Khivan oasis. " He re- 
pulsed," says an account by a Russian author, 
" the attacks of the Khivans for three days, but 
was then deluded into accepting their overtures, 
and allowed his famished troops to be distributed 
in small parties among the villages, where hos- 
pitality was promised to them. There defence 
was impossible, and they were nearly all mur- 
dered, a few only escaping to tell the tale, and 
a few lingering on in captivity." Bekovitch 
himself was flayed alive, and a drum-head was 



56 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

made of his skin. So utterly disastrous was 
the issue of the expedition, that " to be swallowed 
up like Bekovitch" is to this day a familiar 
Russian saying. 

The Czars made no further serious attempt to 
conquer Khiva from that time until 1839 » but 
on several occasions in the eighteenth century 
its rulers offered allegiance to the Russian crown ; 
and this fact, indeed, has always since consti- 
tuted one of the Czar's claims to Khivan sover- 
eignty. In 1839 the- celebrated expedition of 
General Perovski took place. England herself 
was forced to acknowledge that this expedition 
was a justifiable one. For many years the 
Uzbegs had made a practice of obstructing and 
robbing the Russian caravans, making sudden 
attacks upon the outposts, imprisoning, tortur- 
ing and often murdering merchants who were 
peaceably going their ways of trade, endeavoring 
to incite the Kirghizes north of them to insur- 
rection against Russian rule, and returning in- 
sulting responses to demands for reparation. 
Thus the Czar's dignity and his aggressive in- 
terest coincided in impelling him to undertake 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. SI 

the subjugation of the Khivan Uzbegs. His 
design was hastened by the English expedition 
into Afghanistan ; for now it was clear that Cen- 
tral Asia was to be the battle-ground of Russian 
and English interests in the Orient. 

Perovski set out from the shores of the Cas- 
pian on the 29th of November, 1839. His force 
comprised five thousand men, ten thousand 
camels of burden and twenty-two field-guns. 
Of his army, two thousand were cavalry. It 
was with a force and armament so small that 
Prussia hoped to conquer a country with a fixed 
population of half a million, and having tributary 
tribes numbering as many more. One feature 
of this, as of all the Russian expeditions in the 
East, is worthy of note and of praise. The prep- 
arations for it were ample. Money was not 
spared to make every appointment complete. 
The ten thousand camels carried plenty of warm 
clothing for every soldier, six months' rations 
for each man, and even many comforts for the 
protracted camp-life expected in the deserts. 

But Perovski, like Bekovitch before him, was 
doomed to failure. In more than two months 



58 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA, 

he had advanced only four hundred miles, less 
than half way from the Caspian to the oasis ; and 
here, in the midst of the barren desert, finding 
that one-fifth of his army and four-fifths of his 
camels had succumbed to the bitter hardships 
of winter, and to various diseases, the general 
resolved to retrace his steps. The retreat was a 
masterly one, and Perovski was received by 
Nicholas with almost as much honor as if he had 
returned a conqueror. His enterprise, indeed, 
had not been wholly fruitless. His troops had 
at least one engagement with the Khivans, which 
so deeply impressed them with Russian prowess 
that, the Khan, fearing another expedition, re- 
leased the Russian prisoners in his hands, pro- 
hibited his subjects from reducing Russians to 
slavery, and received the Czar's envoys with 
effusive demonstrations of respect. 

Between Perovski 's expedition in 1839, ano ^ 
that which, under General Kauffmann, in the 
winter of 1873, finally reduced Khiva to Russian 
vassalage, the advance of Russia in other parts 
of Central Asia was rapid, and well calculated 
to arouse the fears of England. A comparison 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. $9 

of her outposts held in 1839 with those acquired 
since, down to the present time, clearly indicates 
how energetic has been the pursuit of her long- 
cherished ambition during the past forty years. 
At the former period the bold and historic 
frontiers of the Caucasus were still independent 
of Russian rule ; and Russia was forced to keep 
an army of one hundred thousand men to defend 
her territory from the depredations of the Cau- 
casian tribes. 

There were no railways, and Russia but 
timidly navigated the extreme northern waters 
of the Caspian with two small steamers. She 
had just acquired the Island of Ashurada, then 
only a sand-bank, now one of her most important 
strongholds in the Caspian. The frontiers of 
Russia across the continent from west to east 
found their southern limit in a line of forts and 
outposts drawn from the Ural river to the an- 
cient Tartar city of Semipalatinsk, on the Irtish, 
in the south-east corner of Siberia. Thus forty- 
six years ago Russia was, at the nearest point, 
fully one thousand miles from the giant range of 



60 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

the Hindoo Koosh, which separates British 
India from Turkistan. 

Now a line of railway connects St. Petersburg 
and Moscow with the Black Sea, and within the 
past ten years a railway has been completed be- 
tween a convenient point on the Black Sea and 
the Caspian, passing below the spurs of the 
Caucasus range. Several hundred steamers are 
constantly afloat on the Volga, and for the past 
fifteen years Russia has maintained a war flotilla 
of from fifty to eighty vessels on the Caspian. 
On the distant and desert-bound Sea of Aral 
itself there is quite a formidable Russian war 
fleet, which, since the acquisition of Khiva and 
the water-roads of the Jaxartes and the Oxus, 
has been considerably increased. Russian naval 
stations have been established from time to time 
on the Persian coast of the Caspian, so that the 
dominions of the Shah would be completely at 
the mercy of Russia were it not for the dangers 
of British hostility. The same may be said of 
the dominions of the Ameer of Cabool and Af- 
ghanistan. Russian troops are to-day within 
the supposed boundary of Afghanistan ; and 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 6 1 

probably the only motive which has hitherto 
restrained them from advancing to the conquest 
of that rich and fertile land, which would open 
to them the southern seas, is the hesitation of 
Russia to come into direct collision with 
England. 

Perhaps the most interesting and significant 
of all the operations of Russia in Central Asia 
were those by which she has become virtually 
dominant over the great Khanates of Bokhara 
and Khokand. Bokhara has always been a chief 
centre, dep6t, and market of Central Asian trade, 
and as such has long been coveted by both Russia 
and England. From the time when, but a genera- 
tion after Mohammed's death, a Moslem army 
overran the country, conquering both the Tartar 
nomads scattered over its wastes and the more 
civilized Iranese followers of Zoroaster in the 
settled districts, Bokhara has been almost con- 
stantly the battle-ground of Oriental religions, 
races, and fierce rival ambitions. 

When settled under Mohammedan rule, which 
sought its chief military support not from the 
primitive Tajiks, fire- worshippers, but from the 



62 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Mongol Buddhists, Bokhara about the ninth cen- 
tury reached a high degree of power and even 
splendor. " It was not only the seat," says a 
historian, " of a magnificent empire, but the 
centre of liberal cultivation and learning." Then 
came the ruthless Jengis'Khan with his Tartar 
hordes, overruning Turkistan from the Indus to 
the Mesopotamian mountains ; and, soon succeed- 
ing this warrior, a still greater warrior appeared 
on the same scene in the person of Timour 
Tamerlane, who built up a vast and powerful 
empire, and who lies entombed at Samarkand, 
the second of Bokharan cities. The descendants 
of these two chiefs long disputed the sovereignty 
of the Southern Turkistani States ; but finally 
the grand viziers gained possession of the power, 
as the mayors of the palace had done in France. 
The last prince of Bokhara who claimed a descent 
from Jengis Khan was deposed by his vizier in 
1784; and the grandson of that vizier is the 
present reigning Ameer of Bokhara. 

In the contention between Russia and England 
for the control of Bokhara Russia had the start, 
and has pursued her advantage with sleepless 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 63 

pertinacity. While Khiva on one side and Kho- 
kand on the other have always bitterly resisted 
Russian influence and progress, Bokhara, jealous 
of the ascendency which England acquired in 
neighboring Cabool, rather encouraged Russian 
projects, with the result of finding herself at last 
reduced to a state of virtual dependence upon 
that power. Russia began her designs upon 
Bokhara by endeavoring to establish diplomatic 
relations and commercial treaties with the Ameer. 
Missions were exchanged between the two courts 
as long ago as the middle of the last century ; 
but the results were not large, and at the proper 
moment Russia entered upon the project of bring- 
ing Bokhara within her military control. 

In order to reach Bokhara, however, it was 
necessary first to subdue the large, formidable 
and warlike Khanate of Khokand, lying between 
Bokhara and the Kara Tagh range, and occupy- 
ing the banks of the Jaxartes down to where it 
flows into the Sea of Aral. Khokand was long 
ruled by the descendants of Timour ; then it be- 
came for a while a dependency of Bokhara ; then, 
under another descendant of Timour, it regained, 



64 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

about a century ago, its independence. The 
Khans of Khokand extended their dominions by 
frequent conquests, until they came into collision, 
in the lower valley of the Jaxartes, with the 
Khivans and the Kirghiz hordes ; and it was 
their attack upon the latter, who enjoyed the 
protection of Russia, which gave Russia the ex- 
cuse and opportunity to assume an aggressive 
warfare on Khokand. 

It was about forty-five years ago, four or five 
years before the ill-fated Perovski expedition 
against Khiva, that the Russians established 
their first military post on the Jaxartes. This 
river flows into the northern arm of the Sea of 
Aral, as the Oxus does into its southern arm ; 
and this step was the first of the series by which 
Russia advanced her frontier line from Orenburg 
and Semipalatinsk to the wide semicircle stretch- 
ing from Fort Kopal around the foot of the great 
southern ranges to the Sea of Aral. At Aralsk, 
near the mouth of the Jaxartes, she built a fort, 
and soon after a second fort, some sixty miles 
distant, farther up the Jaxartes, at Kazaly. 

The Russians were now in a position to 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 65 

defend their vassals, the Kirghiz nomads, from 
the constant forays of the Khokandis. These 
latter held as their extreme northern post Fort 
Ak Masjid, on the Jaxartes, three hundred miles 
distant from Aralsk. This fort was commanded 
by Yakub Beg, one of the most remarkable figures 
in modern Oriental history. Yakub, a foreign 
adventurer, probably of Caucasian origin, had 
taken service under the Khan of Khokand, and 
by the exhibition of rare military capacity had 
risen to the command of what was the most im- 
portant outpost of the Khan's recently acquired 
dominions. It was the same Yakub Beg who 
lately reigned, with Draco-like severity and 
with the sternest and most impartial justice, 
over the great kingdom of Kashgar, which he 
himself created by conquest. 

In 1852 the Russians made their first attack 
upon Yakub, then commanding the Khokandi 
fort Ak Masjid ; but he repulsed them with 
heavy loss. In the following year Perovski 
— the same who had vainly marched against 
Khiva — led a force of 1,700 men against 
Yakub, and this time, after a most obstinately 



66 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

fought siege and series of battles, Fort Ak 
Masjid fell. At almost the same time Russian 
forces descended from Semipalatinsk on the 
extreme north-east, and established Forts Kopal, 
Iliisk, and Vernoe. Thus were acquired the 
two horns of that vast semicircle by which the 
Russian frontier has been pushed, within twenty 
years, more than a thousand miles nearer India 
and the sea. The progress of the Russians was 
stayed by the disastrous war of the Crimea ; but 
gradually the Russian lines, from Ak Masjid on 
the one side and Kopal on the other, drew near 
each other along the river banks and mountain 
bases. In 1857 tne y nac ^ established a station at 
Suzek, at the foot of the Kara Tagh range ; two 
years later they had reached Kastek, and had 
narrowed the gap on the other side by erecting 
a fort at Julek. 

Finally, by 1864, the Russians had completed 
their possession of the great semicircular frontier, 
had brought the neighboring nomads into a not 
unwilling vassalage, and had contracted the 
Khokand Khanate to less than half of its ancient 
dimensions. The capture of Hazrat Sultan, a 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 6j 

flourishing town lying between the Jaxartes and 
the Kara Tagh mountains, and of Chamkand, 
south of it, soon followed. The next object of 
assault was the thriving city of Tashkend, which 
is said to spread over an area of ten miles by 
five, with very high walls, and fortifications as 
formidable as Uzbeg science could make them. 
The first attack upon Tashkend was repulsed 
with heavy loss to the assailants. The Kho- 
kandis swarmed northward, and the Russian 
occupation of Hazrat Sultan was for a while 
threatened. 

Reinforcements enabled the Russian general 
once more to assume the offensive, early in 1865 ; 
but not until the Ameer of Bokhara had hastened 
to the assistance of the Khan of Khokand, proba- 
bly with the real object of getting possession of 
the beleaguered Khanate for himself. Gen. 
Cherniayeff laid siege to Tashkend, with its 
200,000 inhabitants, with a force of about 2,000 
men. The resistance of the Khokandis was 
obstinate ; but the Russians succeeded first in 
cutting off the water supply, and then in de- 
feating the valiant Khokandi general, Alim Kul, 



68 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

in a sortie; Alim himself falling in the battle, 
and thus leaving Khokand without a single 
leader of courage and conspicuous ability. The 
supply of food as well as of water was now cut 
off from the doomed city, which capitulated 
after a siege of six weeks. 

The capture and occupation of Tashkend may 
be said to have given the Russians final and well- 
nigh complete control of the great Khanate of 
Khokand. They established there not only a 
large garrison, but a commercial emporium and 
a civil government ; and, at the present moment, 
a Russian governor and council and Russian 
courts and police are settled there. It was 
until recently the centre of all their military 
operations, and from thence they are able to 
dictate to the Khan at Khokand, and to protect 
the upper valley of the Jaxartes. 

A new and unexpected foe now confronted 
the Russian conquerors. This was MusafTar-ud- 
din, Ameer of the powerful State of Bokhara, of 
w r hich we have before spoken as an important 
seat of Central Asian trade. This prince de- 
manded that Tashkend should be evacuated ; 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 69 

and when he found that remonstrance was use- 
less he marched against that city with 40,000 
soldiers. The Russian general Romanovski 
advanced to meet him with a force of about 
3,000, and finding him intrenched some miles 
south of the Jaxartes, gave him battle. "The 
Bokharan artillery," says a narrator, " was 
numerous and heavy, but, fired over the heads of 
the Russians, while the Russian shells and 
rockets filled their camp with carnage and con- 
fusion." The result was that Musafiar soon 
retreated in disorder, leaving his treasure, arms, 
and camp equipage behind him. 

In consequence of this victory the Russians 
were able to occupy . the strongly fortified and 
commercial city of Khojand, and a little later 
to advance into that beautiful, fertile and 
historic valley of Samarkand, where Timour 
Tamerlane rested from his conquests, died, and 
still lies entombed. Such were the features and 
acquisitions of Russian progress in the valley of 
the Jaxartes. Khokand and Samarkand are 
virtually subject to the dominion of the Czar. 
Bokhara, if still nominally independent, has lost 



70 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

some portion of its eastern territory and is held 
in awe by the Russian troops ; while Russian 
diplomatic agents have a predominating influ- 
ence at the Ameer's court. 

To capture Khiva was a task that still re- 
mained after Khokand had fallen. The valley 
of the Oxus was quite as necessary to Russian 
projects as that of the Jaxartes. The third and 
successful Russian expedition against Khiva 
was undertaken in the winter of 1872-73. 
It was commanded by Gen. Kauffmann, and 
consisted of four columns, starting from different 
points and converging on the desert capital. 
Two of these columns — one of them accom- 
panied by the commander-in-chief — proceeded 
eastward across the desert from two points on 
the Caspian, the most northerly following very 
nearly in the line taken by Perovski in 1839. 
The other two columns proceeded southward 
from the eastern and western banks of the Sea 
of Aral. In all there were but 4,000 men; 
and Khiva contained at least half a million in- 
habitants. 

Russia staked her whole prestige in Central 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 7 1 

Asia on the issue of this undertaking. If a 
third failure to capture Khiva occurred, there 
was little doubt that a general uprising against 
Russian rule would take place in the valley of 
the Jaxartes. Success would go far towards 
finally establishing Russian supremacy through- 
out Turkistan. So admirable were Kauffmann's 
plans that the four columns reached the walls 
of the Uzbeg capital within a few days of each 
other, the column commanded by the general 
himself being first on the spot. A short and 
sharp struggle ensued ; the fiery young Khan 
defended his chief city with- pluck and courage, 
but his utmost efforts were vain. He capitulated, 
and became the prisoner of Russia ; and the 
city of Khiva was occupied by Kauffmann's 
troops. 

England was thoroughly alarmed by the 
Khivan expedition, and yet more so when Khiva 
fell. She demanded of Russia that, when the 
Khan had been punished for imprisoning Rus- 
sians, and the safety of Russian caravans cross- 
ing the desert had been secured, Khiva should 
be evacuated. Assurances to this effect were 



72 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

given by a special envoy of the Czar sent to Lon- 
don. A Russian garrison, however, still holds 
Khiva, and Russian war-ships have long floated 
unforbidden on the Oxus. By the destruction 
of the dams which shut the Oxus to navigation 
there is free passage for the Russian flotilla for 
hundreds of miles southward, even to within forty 
or fifty miles of the city of Bokhara itself; wdiile 
navigation on the Jaxartes is possible to within 
the same distance of Samarkand on the other side. 
The Russian stations on the Caspian, the two 
great rivers, and the Sea of Aral now sustain 
each other in a great cordon of military, naval, 
and river bases ; and Russian power makes 
itself directly felt on the frontiers of Persia, 
Bokhara, Afghanistan and Kashgar. 

The complete control of Turkistan, east and 
west, may now fairly be said to be in the hands 
of the Czar's troops, governors, and emissaries. 
In 1884 another significant advance of the Rus- 
sian forces took place. Passing the left bank of 
the Oxus — an act which England had once 
threatened to consider as a casus belli — they 
occupied the famous oasis of Merv, and set up a 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 73 

government in that important entrepot and for- 
tress. Merv is one of the military keys of the 
desert region which borders upon the confines of 
Khorassan, in Persia, and its occupation by 
Russia was an event of serious import in the 
process of absorbing and dominating Central 
Asia. 

But Merv was not the limit of Russian ag- 
gression in 1884. The Russian outposts were 
carried farther still to the south-westward, and 
occupied the town of Sarakhs, which is also a 
military position of strategic value, and which 
stands as near as possible at the junction of the 
three frontiers of Turkistan, Persia, and Afghan- 
istan. The importance of Sarakhs to the Russian 
scheme of conquest lies to some extent in the fact 
that it enables Russia to carry forward her rail- 
way from the Caspian and Askabad, now in 
rapid process of building, to the regions on which 
she looks with a specially covetous eye. 

Towards the end of 1S84 the Russian lines 
were extended still farther southward, and now 
entered the valleys of the Murghab and Heri 
rivers, within the boundaries of what has hith- 



74 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

erto been regarded as the territory of Afghanis- 
tan. One detachment advanced from Sarakhs 
into the valley of the Heri to the Zulflkar ravine, 
and thence to Akrabat. Another proceeded 
from Merv up the right bank of the Murghab to 
Sari-Yazi, and even pushed an outpost as far as 
Kishti. Meanwhile the Ameer of Afghanistan 
pushed his outposts up to Penj-deh, also on the 
Murghab, and directly confronted the Russians 
at that point. The English commissioner, mean- 
while, took up his head-quarters with his escort 
at Gul-ran, to the south of Akrabat. 

The aggressive operations of Russia in 1884 
aroused England to energetic diplomatic action. 
The boundaries between Afghanistan, Persia, 
and the Merv district have never been author- 
itatively settled and agreed upon. England 
proposed to Russia that commissioners from 
each empire should proceed to that vague region 
and finally determine the line which should 
mark the dominions of the Afghan Ameer. 
This was agreed to, and the commissioners were 
appointed. Sir Peter Lumsden, the English 
commissioner, went to the disputed country ; but 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 75 

the Russian commissioner held back ; and dur- 
ing this delay the complications between 
England and Russia, as a consequence of the 
advance of the latter into the valleys of the Heri 
and the Murghab, arose. 

The immediate cause of the alarm and sudden 
promptitude of England has yet to be stated. 
Less than a hundred miles south of the Russian 
outposts at Zulfikar and Akrabat stands the most 
formidable fortress and most commanding mili- 
tary site in Central or Western Asia. This is 
Herat. Herat may be called the Ehrenbreit- 
stein, the Gibraltar of the territories in the midst 
of which it is situated. It has been traditionally 
called u the Gate of India." It can be approached 
from the north through the Rabat pass ; and the 
Russians, at Akrabat, were within two days' march 
of the Rabat pass. The Russians once in posses- 
sion of Herat, India would be distinctly menaced. 
Herat commands all the valleys leading from 
Persia and Western Turkistan into Afghanistan. 
In Russian hands it would be well-nigh impreg- 
nable, especially should the trans-Caspian rail- 
way be completed to its walls. The supreme 



76 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

military importance of Herat requires that a 
more full description should be given of it ; and 
this will be found in a subsequent chapter on 
Afghanistan, 1 within whose territority Herat is 
indisputably included. 

1 Page 103. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 7/ 



V. 

THE PEOPLES OF TURKISTAN. 

It is worth while to consider briefly the 
character of the races which, in their long career 
of Central Asian conquest, the Czars have vir- 
tually added to their already enormous empire ; 
and the general results of the substitution of 
Russian rule for the almost chronic anarchy, 
which, before the arrival of the Russians, pre- 
vailed in the Khanates of Turkistan. 

As the Russians began their progress south- 
ward from Orenburg and eastward from the 
Caspian, they first encountered the great no- 
madic tribe of the Kirghiz. This strange, 
wandering people, Mohammedan in faith, 
Turkish, probably, in origin, and once form- 
ing a powerful and warlike nation comprising 
several millions of people, which carried its 
conquests as far south as Tashkend, are divided 



78 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

into vast " Hordes," and tend their flocks and 
herds amid the solitudes of the desert and 
the steppe. In all the " Hordes," of which 
.there are four, the Kirghiz probably number 
between twelve and thirteen hundred thousand. 
They are described as speaking a tongue much 
resembling the Tartar, while their physiogno- 
mies are a curious mixture of Turk and Mongo- 
lian. They have intermarried extensively with 
women of Western China, which probably ac- 
counts for their partial resemblance to the 
Mongolian type. 

"The Kirghiz," says Mr. Schuyler in his 
" Turkistan," " are in general short of stature, 
with round swarthy faces, insignificant noses, 
and small, sharp black eyes, and the tightly- 
drawn eyelid which is seen in all the Mongol 
tribes." The Kirghiz lives in a tent made of 
light felt, with a felt flap for a door, a fire in 
the middle, and the sides of the tent decked 
with ribbons. Sometimes, however, he pre- 
fers an underground hut, wherein his family, 
his calves, and his dogs eat, sleep, and 
while away the time together. Around his 



KHIVA 




SCALE. IN. C 



THE RUSSIAN A' 




1.NCE ON HERAT. 



KHIVA 



'SSIAN 



Ehalata, 
Choli 



Desert] of' Khiva 

CharjiuZ 



i 
3QKHA RA" 






Jermab\ 



JfERV 



Karkv 



SaraJJiS ..A- 



■ 1 ! \ 


"" °- ; A: 


^r/ / 




V 1 / ^v 

\ V \ 


*\\ (/ 



Dehas 




•JSazaian I >— ~ 



JiUH^ 



?aiu& 



iEcJustBiwbdba' 
A. 



. f 



>c& 



.-*'•-"•«.•'' 



Rawa 
JPmdi 



1AI C'" if„ uV 



(T-I-GHILZAI f 

' 1 — ! 



? 



(ANDAHAR 



/_.—• 






I EHC.U5H. STATUTE. N 




THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON HERAT. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 79 

tent or hut he hangs his carpets and clothing ; 
and when he is rich, you may also see his 
silver utensils and the trappings of his horses 
dangling from the felt. He shaves his head 
close, and wears what beard nature vouch- 
safes to him. For clothing, he is content with 
one or two very simple garments. A pair 
of baggy breeches and a rough shirt with a 
very large collar are enough for the ordinary 
class of Kirghiz. But these nomads have their 
aristocracy. The Kirghiz nabob is often a 
very magnificent fellow, displaying his wealth 
upon his person with gold-embroidered velvet 
cloaks, and skull-caps richly laced, and silver- 
mounted belts ; while his horses are adorned 
with equally elaborate saddles and bridles, in 
which gems as well as gold and silver glitter. 
The Kirghiz women wear loose jackets and 
trousers, and, like other Mohammedan women, 
are curiously swathed about the head and neck 
with cotton folds. The Kirghiz young girls 
wear their hair closely cropped behind, while 
in front it flows down long and is plaited into 
graceful braids. " The women," Mr. Schuyler 



80 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

tells us, "spin, embroider very well, cook, and 
do most of the work — as the men are too lazy 
to do more than look after their horses." The 
Kirghiz is, it seems, a shiftless and improvident 
person ; he goes without drink for a day, and 
without food for several, and then gorges him- 
self to stupidity. He eats mutton and horse- 
flesh, and is prodigiously fond of tea ; being 
content, however, with a very poor quality of 
that beverage. He also stupefies himself with 
a strange drink composed of fermented mare's 
milk. 

The Kirghiz is as slack in his religion as he 
is shiftless in his vocation. It is to be feared 
that the Prophet would scarcely recognize the 
rites, and he certainly would be loath to accept 
the superstitions, of his Kirghiz followers. 
Their Mohammedanism is as vague and as little 
spiritual as the Christianity of the Montenegrin 
peasants. A stranger meeting a group of 
Kirghiz astride of their horses on the steppe is 
more terrified than there is need at their wild 
and swarthy appearance. He is, in truth, on 
better acquaintance, a not unamiable and very 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 8 1 

childlike person. He is superior, indeed, to all 
other Central Asian races. He is generous, 
hospitable, social ; credulous, yet not himself 
very punctilious as to telling the truth ; fickle 
and easily persuaded ; timid in war, preferring 
scout-duty to service at the front ; a marauder 
when he has a chance, but never wantonly mur- 
derous. He delights, above all, in his horses, 
and is most happy when on horseback ; indolent 
when on the ground, he is no sooner astride his 
steed than he can travel great distances without 
weariness. The Kirghiz, too, is fond of music, 
and sings a great deal ; and no singing people 
can be utterly depraved. There is a Kirghiz 
poetry ; and the favorite instruments are the 
guitar and the drum. 

Very different from the races of the great and 
little hordes of the steppes and deserts are those 
which swarm in the cities and towns farther 
south, on the upper waters of the Jaxartes and 
the Oxus, and in the Khanates of Khokand and 
Bokhara. Here we come upon thriving empori- 
ums and busy marts, and sometimes noble 
monuments of Asiatic architecture and ancient 



82 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

civilization. Tashkend and Samarkand are the 
two most important cities of Turkistan which 
have fallen under Russian sway. Tashkend is in 
many respects the most interesting. There is a 
Russian town and a native town, and the latter 
presents on every hand the varied aspect of a 
settlement that has been built up during many 
ages by various races. The streets are tortuous ; 
the town is everywhere adorned by gardens ; 
and the walls of the city, celebrated in its sieges, 
are sixteen miles long, and from twelve to fifteen 
feet high. 

Lovely gardens adorn the suburbs beyond the 
walls. The houses are neat, white buildings, 
and the Russian town, at least, is supplied with 
many European and all the Asiatic luxuries. 
The population of the city is stated at somewhere 
in the vicinity of 120,000. This population in- 
cludes a curious variety of races, and in this re- 
spect Tashkend somewhat resembles Bombay. 
First and most numerous are the Uzbegs, a people 
who are very numerous throughout Central and 
Southern Turkistan. Then there are the Tajiks 
(of Persian origin), and some Kirghiz, Tartars, 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 83 

Jews, and Hindoos. The Uzbegs, like their more 
restless neighbors, the Kirghiz, are the descend- 
ants of Turkish tribes who wandered from the 
west into the upper valley of the Jaxartes centu- 
ries ago. They are divided into clans, each clan 
comprising a family with its near and remote 
degrees of relationship. 

The Uzbeg regards his race as the aristocratic 
one, and he holds all the other races in contempt. 
He is usually tall and rather gaunt, with a long 
and expressively sober face. The Tajik, on the 
other hand, is stocky and full inform, with long 
black beard, and sly black eyes. He is far less 
thrifty and industrious than the Uzbeg, and is a 
poor worker and an apt liar. But while the 
races are very different in character, their cus- 
toms and even dress are similar, and some famil- 
iarity with the community is necessary before 

they can be distinguished. The men of Tash- 

* 
kend, like the Kirghiz, wear long baggy trousers, 

bound to the waist with a girdle or belt, over 

which they wear a loose gown extending to the 

ankles, with long, loose sleeves, — a garment 

much like that worn by the Parsees. Around 



84 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

the waist a scarf is sometimes worn, sometimes 
a shawl ; the Jews resident in Tashkend must 
use cords as girdles, this being a sign of 
ignominy. 

A very complicated affair is the turban with 
which the denizens of the city burden their heads, 
requiring much skill to wind it around the cra- 
nium so as to make a presentable appearance. 
The priests wear white turbans, but the mer- 
chants prefer more showy colors. As for the 
women, they dress not unlike their lords, except 
that, as is the case with the gentler sex every- 
where, they wear bright and varied tints. Like 
all Asiatic women those of Tashkend are ex- 
travagantly fond of personal decoration. They 
wear a profusion of necklaces, ear-rings, pendants 
in the hair, and now and then a swarthy damsel 
is to be observed with a ring in her nose. The 
Mussulman "custom of veiling themselves closely 
when in the street is maintained by the women 
of Tashkend, though it is observed that their 
curiosity often gets the better of them, and they 
are fain to take a sly peep at the Europeans as 
they pass. This is, however, a very venial sin, 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 85 

as it is not so wicked for a woman to let her 
face be seen by an infidel as by one of the faith- 
ful. 

The favorite articles of food throughout Tur- 
kistan are rice and mutton made into a sort of 
stew, which is eaten with the hands. The people 
of Tashkend are not horse-eaters, as are the 
Kirghiz. Like the Kirghiz, however, they are 
exceedingly fond of tea, and drink it at all hours of 
the day. Wine is quite unknown ; but the Rus- 
sians have taught the Tashkendis the unwhole- 
some fascinations of "fire-water." They have a 
sort of beer, too, made of grain, called buza, 
which is intoxicating and stupefying in its 
effects. Of course, the use of tobacco is preva- 
lent ; the Tashkendi smokes from a small 
gourd, brass-mounted, the tobacco being " a fine, 
dark-green powder." Opium is not much used, 
but a narcotic called bang, made of Indian hemp, 
is smoked. 

The Central Asians appear to have but few 
of those recreations with which most nations 
beguile their leisure. Their favorite pastimes 
are those in which their horses perform a part, 



86 ENGLAND AND- RUSSIA. 

for everywhere fondness for the horse is a con- 
spicuous trait. Yet they adopt many methods 
of passing away the time with which the rest of 
mankind is familiar, and some of which, no 
doubt, they have derived from their Russian 
conquerors. The children are seen playing with 
knuckle-bones, and the little girls nurse rather 
uncomely specimens of dolls. The elders play 
chess, cards, and dice ; and they have a way of 
gambling, by sitting in a circle, putting down 
copper coins, and betting as to which coin will 
be the first upon which a fly will alight. 

Dancing, too, is in vogue among the Central 
Asians, though it is supposed to be forbidden by 
the sacred laws of the Koran. Of music of a 
certain tedious, monotonous sort, they appear to 
be very fond, the principal instruments being 
two, three, or four stringed guitars, and tam- 
bourines made of goat- skins. They have also 
rude clarinets, trumpets, and drums. The 
dances are for the most part performed in private, 
and by batchas, or dancing-boys. These boys 
are held in high esteem in Khokand and Bok- 
hara, where they seem, indeed, to be almost 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 87 

worshipped. They are addressed in terms as 
high-flown as " your majesty," and as they pass 
through the bazaars are humbly saluted by the 
stall-keepers. An aristocrat in Turkistan does 
not regard his household as complete without a 
batcha, and always has a bazem, or dance, per- 
formed when he gives a party or feast. 

The customs of Turkistan as to courtship and 
marriage have many features of interest. The 
marriage tie is, of course, loose and unequal 
among a semicivilized, rather gross Moham- 
medan people. A man of Tashkend or Samar- 
kand is permitted by sacred and by civil law to 
wed four wives. More he cannot have, unless, 
indeed, he choose to divorce one of those he has 
already ; and the law of divorce there is conven- 
iently liberal. A man may divorce himself from 
any of his wives by merely declaring his wish to 
do so, and by returning the lady her dowry and 
the money which he himself settled upon her at 
marriage. On the other hand a man must 
consent to a divorce if either of his wives simply 
requests it. All she has to do is to tell him she 
wishes to marry a man who is better than he. 



88 ENGLAND AND ■ RUSSIA. 

There are certain epithets, which, if a man use 
them to his wife, entitles her to a divorce. The 
wives of the Turkistanee are regarded as his 
inferiors and servitors, and the instruments of his 
pleasures, and not as his equals ; but it is some- 
times found that, as in Hindostan, the wife 
acquires, by superior intelligence, control over 
her husband. It is creditable to this people that 
they give some education, at least, to their girls, 
though it is far inferior to that received by the 
boys. The women of warm climes like Turkis- 
tan mature at a much earlier age than those of 
northern and colder countries. A Turkistanee 
woman of thirty is old and homely. Girls are 
therefore regarded as quite marriageable when 
they are eleven or twelve, and are turning the 
corner of old-maidhood at twenty. 

Pride of race and rank and a prudent eye 
for worldly goods operate in much the same 
manner in regard to marriages in Tashkend and 
Khokand as in France. Matches are made by 
the female relatives of the would-be bridegroom, 
in negotiation with those of the destined bride. 
Perhaps the existence of mutual love, or the 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 89 

probabilities of marital happiness, are less often 
discussed at these conferences in the women's 
court than matters of social standing and pecuni- 
ary resource. If these are satisfactorily ar- 
ranged the marriage goes forward. 

The results of the Russian occupation of the 
Hordes and Khanates of Turkistan cannot be 
regarded as wholly beneficial to the native popu- 
lation. The government which has been substi- 
tuted for that of the Khans is military in character 
and operation. The governors are military 
officers ; the laws are executed by troops. It is 
true that in certain respects the Russians have 
been wise enough to imitate the sagacious policy 
pursued by the English in India. Here and 
there material improvements have been made, 
such as the building of roads and bridges, and 
attempts to stimulate the productiveness and 
commercial spirit of the Khanates. Order, too, 
of a certain sort, has been substituted on the 
upper banks of the Oxus and the Jaxartes for the 
almost perpetual wars, civil and foreign, which 
have for centuries disturbed the peace of Kho- 
kand, Bokhara, and East Turkistan. 



9° ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

But this order is enforced by a capricious and 
oppressive military authority, over which the 
home government has practically no control 
whatever, and which has in return burdened the 
people with very heavy taxes. The native 
religion is protected, as are the Hindoo and 
Mussulman sects in India, and the Russians have 
gone so far in this direction as to prohibit the ef- 
forts of Christian missionaries. The Russians 
have here and there improved the sanitary con- 
dition of the towns, have established systems of 
cleaning the streets, and hospitals for the sick. 
But they have done very little in the way of in- 
troducing general education, though some slight 
effort has been made to set up schools in Samar- 
kand and Tashkend. 

The Russians seem to have been led into the 
mistake of trying to impose European institu- 
tions upon the Asiatics for which their past, and 
it may be said their genius, seem quite unfitted. 
They have introduced a system of passports which 
is very obnoxious to a population which is in large 
part roving and nomadic, and has been left free for 
centuries to wander over the deserts, steppes and 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 9 1 

oases. They have even made a trial of elective 
institutions. In Tashkend they have caused the 
city council and even the judges to be chosen 
by the settled and nomad population. The 
judges are in general appointed by the mili- 
tary executive ; and one of the evils of the 
Russian rule is, that the laws which they are 
called upon to administer are being constantly 
changed, added to, and complicated by the 
whim of the Russian governors. 

In spite of all these evils, however, the influ- 
ence of the Russian conquests and settlements in 
Turkistan upon the people has doubtless been on 
the whole civilizing. This civilizing influence is 
exercised outside of the formalities and oppres- 
sions of law and government, by the contact of 
the natives with a body of men who, in compari- 
son with them, are enlightened. The manners, 
modes of thoughts, and ideas of improvement of 
the Russians are imitated ; and the natives re- 
ceive new light in the ways of doing things, and 
in the pursuit alike of the business and of the 
pleasures of life. 



92 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 



MILITARY RESOURCES OF RUSSIA. 

The enormous extent of the military and naval 
armaments of the Czar's empire is not, perhaps, 
generally appreciated. Whatever may be the 
weakness of Russia's financial condition, it is 
certain that her war services are gigantic and 
formidable. It is a surprising but well authen- 
ticated fact that the possible strength of the 
Russian forces on a war footing reaches the 
prodigious total of 3,200,000 men ; that is, more 
than one twenty-fourth of the entire population 
of European and Asiatic Russia. The Czar has 
besides, as will presently be shown, one of the 
finest naval armaments in the. world, which 
is rapidly being increased by the addition of 
new and powerful war-ships. 

The present system of army organization in 
Russia was put in operation in 1874. Briefly 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 93 

described, it ordains a yearly conscription, to 
which all able-bodied subjects of the Czar who 
have reached the age of twenty-one are liable. 
The period of service is fixed at fifteen years, of 
which the first six years are spent in the active 
army, and the remaining nine in the reserve. 
The reserve are only required to serve in time of 
war ; in which event the younger men are sent 
to the field, while the elder are assigned to gar- 
rison duty. Aside from this provision for the 
regular forces, a militia, which maybe called out 
in time of war, is constituted by all the able- 
bodied subjects of the Czar not already included 
in the army and naval forces. 

There is yet another and altogether unique 
source from which Russia derives a considerable 
part of her warlike resources. This is the or- 
ganization of Cossack troops. The Cossacks 
occupy a singular position in Russia. They are 
" a free race of men." They have never been 
subject to serfdom. They occupy certain terri- 
tories by themselves, which they hold and use in 
common, the system being one of the true com- 
munist type. They are essentially a military 



94 ENGLAND AND. RUSSIA. 

race. They pay no taxes to the empire whatever, 
but are one and all bound to military service. 
The period of Cossack sendee in the active army 
is twenty-five years, and in the reserve five years 
longer. The Cossacks are, moreover, required to 
provide their equipments, arms, clothing, horses 
at their own expense. The Cossacks of the Don 
— the most redoubtable of all — not only pay no 
imposts to the Imperial collectors, but receive 
annual tributes, and their widows and orphans 
are provided with grants of land. 

The Russian army report for 1884 reveals 
the following figures : The active army, com- 
prising infantry, riflemen, cavalry, artillery, 
horse batteries and engineers, is put down at 
532,000 (in round numbers) on a peace footing, 
and 986,000 on a war footing. The reserve is 
stated to contain 69,000 on a peace footing, and 
563,000 on a war footing. The subsidiary 
services, of Cossacks, depot, local and instruc- 
tion troops, and irregulars, being added to the 
active army and the reserve, bring the grand 
total of the forces to 730,000 men on a peace 
footing, and 1,875,000 on a war footing. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 95 

To this grand total must still be added certain 
special corps, and the great body of the militia, 
which completes the already stated number of 
3,200,000 men which it is possible for the Czar 
to summon to his aid in case of war. The little 
army of Finland, about 5,000 men, is also avail- 
able to the Czar in case of need. It may be 
worth while to add that the Cossack troops 
supply in all 50,000 on a peace footing and 
140,000 on a war footing, the valiant Cossacks 
of the Don contributing the larger number and 
the better quality. 

The Russian navy has made within the past 
few years, and is still making, rapid strides. 
Russia has, indeed, two powerful navies. One 
is stationed in the Baltic, and the other in the 
Black Sea. The Baltic fleet consisted, in 1884, 
of 33 armor-clad war-ships, 95 torpedo craft, 49 
unarmored frigates, corvettes and clippers, 15 
gunboats and 10 transports, in all 209 vessels. 
The Black Sea fleet comprised 7 armor-clads 
and 91 unarmored vessels, in all 98 vessels. 
There are, besides, flotillas on the Caspian, the 



96 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Sea of Aral, the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and on 
the Siberian coast. 

The most famous of Russian war-ships — in- 
deed, one of the most famous war-ships in the 
world — is the " Peter the. Great." It is a mon- 
ster of naval prowess. Its armor is 14 inches 
thick at the water-line. It has over 8,000 
horse-power. Its tonnage is nearly 1,000. 
Its length is 330 feet, extreme breadth 69 feet, 
and mean draught 26 feet. But Russia is 
now (1S85) building five new turret ships, three 
of which will be yet more formidable than the 
" Peter the Great." These are the " Tchesma," 
" Sinope," and " Catherine II." The other two, 
the " Admiral Nakhimoff" and "Alexander II.," 
will be only a little inferior in size and capacity. 

The naval force of Russia comprises about 
25,000 sailors, with 29 admirals, vice-admirals 
and rear-admirals, 404 captains, and 934 lieuten- 
ants and midshipmen. The sailors are obtained, 
like the troops, by conscription and recruitment. 
They serve nine years, seven in the active ser- 
vice, and two in the reserve. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 97 



VII. 

AFGHANISTAN. 

Between the territories dominated by Rus- 
sia in Turkistan and the limits of the Anglo- 
Indian empire, lies as the sole remaining 
barrier separating the two great rival powers — 
the kingdom of Afghanistan. A brief account 
of Afghanistan, therefore, upon whose soil 
the final collision between Russia and England 
is altogether likely to take place, is essential 
to a clear idea of their mutual attitude. Af- 
ghanistan is a wild, mountainous country, 
though a considerable portion of its western 
territory comprises desert wastes. On the 
north the giant snow-crowned range of the 
Hindoo Koosh, the continuation of the Hima- 
layas, interposes an impenetrable screen be- 
tween the Khanates and Cabool, which is the 
chief division of Afghanistan. Cabool, with 



98 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

the capital of the same name, is situated on 
lofty table-lands, which slope gradually south- 
ward. 

i 

1 On the east the range of the Soliman moun- 
tains rises as a barrier on the side of India, 
and overlooks the broad plains of the Punjab 
and the almost level valley of the Indus. In 
the south-west a vast sand desert stretches 
away towards the Persian frontier, dotted here 
and there by inhabited oases. The north-west, 
— the region "where the Russian and Afghan 
outposts confront each other — reveals suc- 
cessions of mountain ranges of a less height 
than the Hindoo Koosh, varied by arid 
plains, and pierced by the two valleys of the 
Heri and the Murghab. It is important to 
note that, from the table-lands and mountain 
barriers of Eastern Afghanistan, only two passes 
lead to the Punjab and the Indus valley. These 
are the Khyber pass, formed by the Cabool 
river, and farther to the south, the Bolan pass, 
by which access is had to the Indian principal- 
ity of Scinde. 

This wild, broken, difficult and often dreary 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 99 

domain of Afghanistan is inhabited by a race 
possessing strongly marked traits. The Afghans, 
who are perhaps of mixed Persian and Turco- 
man blood, are fierce, restless, and warlike. 
Powerful and rugged in frame, with rude, stern 
features, they are for the most part nomadic in 
habit, and brigands and outlaws by nature. Af- 
ghanistan, like Turkistan, has been for centuries 
the scene of furious feuds and bloody wars, the 
theatre of the intrigues and rivalries of ambitious 
chiefs and princes, and of frequent desolation by 
civil strife. Yet the country teems with the pos- 
sibilities of a high material prosperity. Some of 
the Afghan valleys are richly fertile, and readily 
yield abundant harvests of useful products. 
Cotton and sugar can be grown in the valleys 
of the Cabool and its tributaries. The oases of 
the deserts are sometimes dense with the date- 
palm. Grapes, apricots, apples, pears, plums, 
cherries, corn, aromatic herbs, rhubarb, tobacco, 
pomegranates and oranges abound in the sunny 
lowlands. Iron and copper, too, are plentiful 
in certain Afghan districts. 

Afghanistan was formerly subject to Persian 



IOO ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

rule. It was not until within a century and a 
half that it became an independent nation. The 
first native dynasty was founded as recently as 
about 1750, by Ahmed Khan. In 1823 Dost 
Mohammed, a prince of remarkable energy and 
warlike prowess, seized the Afghan throne. By 
this time the English had begun to see the im- 
portance of securing their Indian dominions on 
its western side. Dost Mohammed fought the 
Persians, whom he compelled to relinquish Herat. 
Soon after, his aggressions towards India com- 
pelled the governor-general to invade Cabool. 
A small English army penetrated the country by 
the Bolan pass, took Candahar, and advanced 
and seized the city of Cabool itself. Akbar, the 
son of Dost Mohammed, by an act of treachery 
caused the entire British force, including the 
women and children, to be massacred as they 
defiled through the Khyber pass on their way 
back to India. Only one man of the 26,000 who 
had entered Afghanistan escaped this wholesale 
slaughter. 

The English hastened to avenge the savage 
butchery. Again Afghanistan was invaded by 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. IOI 

Anglo -Indian troops by both passes, Candahar 
and Cabool were once more taken, and Akbar's 
force was routed and dispersed. The army then 
returned to India. But the troubles with the 
fierce Afghans were not yet ended. They allied 
themselves with the rebellious Sikhs of the 
Punjab in 1846 ; but after a long desultory war- 
fare, Dost Mohammed, who had gone to the aid 
of the Sikhs, was defeated in the battle of 
Gujerat, and driven beyond the Indus. Dost 
died in 1863, and his son, Shere Ali, succeeded 
to the throne. There now arose a fierce conten- 
tion between Shere Ali and his brothers, who 
disputed his right to the sceptre. The British 
in India resolved to acquire as much influence 
as possible in Afghanistan as a policy of protec- 
tion to India itself, recognized, supported and 
even helped Shere Ali in his struggle to maintain 
his rule. 

The result was that he at last reduced the 
rival claimants to submission, and that the Eng- 
lish secured a sort of alliance with the Ameer. 
This was sealed by the meeting of Shere 
Ali with the Earl of Mayo, the Viceroy, in 



102 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

great show and ceremorvy, at Umballa in 1869. 
I Shere Ali proved to be an able and vigorous 
sovereign. He seems to have at first accepted in 
good faith the assurances and friendly offices of 
the Viceroy, and even proposed to send an 
Afghan army to check the Russian advance in 
Bokhara. But, later, he yielded to the seductions 
of Russian intrigue. The Viceroy took prompt 
measures to recover his influence in Afghanistan. 
An embassy, which assumed almost the character 
of a military expedition, proceeded, in 1S79, to 
Cabool. Then the tragedy of 1840 was repeated. 
Cavagnari, the English leader, was massacred, 
with his followers, in the Afghan capital. An 
English army at cnce crossed the Indus, and 
once more Candahar and Cabool were taken. 
Shere Ali was deposed, and soon after died. 

Ayoub, the son of Shere Ali, was an energetic 
and ambitious prince. He was at one time 
Governor of Herat, and by his military qualities 
had won the affections of many of his -father's 
subjects. He had given Shere Ali much trouble 
throughout his reign by his rebellious disposi- 
tion. Ayoub was hostile to English influence. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 103 

When, therefore, the English took Cabool, they 
excluded Ayoub from the throne, and placed 
upon it Abdurrahman Khan, a nephew of Shere 
Ali. Abdurrahman is the present Ameer of 
Afghanistan. 

Ever since his accession there has been a 
diplomatic rivalry between Russia and England 
to gain Abdurrahman's alliance. The Russians 
have employed all the machinery of intrigue, 
secret agents, liberal expenditure of bribes, and 
alluring promises to gain this object ; but Eng- 
lish influence has remained from first to last 
predominant at Cabool, and has doubtless be- 
come yet stronger as a result of the meeting of 
Abdurrahman and Lord DufFerin, the Viceroy, 
at Kawalpindi in the early days of April, 1885. 
On the other hand, Ayoub Khan, the legitimate 
heir of Shere Ali, is still living in Persia, is not 
forgotten by the Afghans, and is believed to be an 
ardent adherent of Russia. 

Herat. 

The military and strategic importance of 
Herat, the " Gate of India," has always been rec- 



104 ENGLAND AND. RUSSIA. 

ognized both by the semi-barbaric Turcoman, 
Persian and Afghan, and by England and 
Russia. Situated at an altitude of 2,500 feet 
above the sea on the river Heri ; standing at the 
junction of the great valleys which lead from 
Persia on the west and north-west, of the Merv 
oasis and Turkistan on the north, and of the 
valleys which approach the Afghan fortresses on 
the east, its value in military operations cannot 
easily be overestimated. It is Herat upon which 
the covetous eyes both of the Russian and the 
Englishman have long been fixed. Its posses- 
sion by one or by the other would be the first 
checkmate in the mighty game of war in which 
they should engage. 

Herat is about 400 miles from Askabad on the 
Caspian, 350 from Cabool, 300 from Candahar, 
and rather over 400 from Quettah, which is the 
nearest point actually garrisoned by Anglo- 
Indian troops, and which commands the Bolan 
pass. Herat was long the seat of the descend- 
ants of Timour Tamerlane. It has always been 
bitterly fought for by the neighboring races. It 
has been the object of many desperate sieges. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 1 05 

In 1857 an English force of 35,000, with fifty 
pieces of artillery, was kept at bay before its 
ramparts for ten months by its Afghan defenders. 
The English have long looked upon Herat as the 
outpost of their Oriental empire against Russian 
aggression ; and this fact has given rise to the 
wars between England and Persia, the latter 
State having been for years completely subject to 
Russian influence. 

The military importance of Herat may be 
somewhat judged when it is known that not only 
do all the roads into the Indian peninsula lead to 
and from this famous stronghold, but that its 
defences are of a most elaborate kind. It is a 
fortified city of quadrangular shape, surrounded 
by ditch and wall, and commanded by a strong 
citadel on its northern side. Its ramparts consist 
of a series of artificial hills of an average height 
of ninety feet, supported by counter-forts of 
masonry with round towers, and crested "with 
a wall thirty-two feet high. The deep ditch 
below, supplied by never-failing water, girds 
this enormous rampart, which dominates all 
the surrounding district. 



106 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

The neighborhood of Herat can supply every- 
thing needful for a great army, even to lead and 
saltpetre ; and the population, which, it is con- 
jectured , could without much difficulty be drawn 
away from Afghan affiliations, is numerous, "war- 
like, and readily bought. " From Herat," says 
an English authority, "the Cossack can practically 
command Khorassan, Balkh, and Maimena. At 
Herat he sits at the natural gate-house of India ; 
for though the passes lie farther east and south, 
here is the outwork of the peninsula which 
looks into them all. Russia at Herat means 
Russia the master of Afghanistan ; and the mas- 
ter of the upper plateau of Afghanistan, com- 
manding access to the passes from the north, is 
in fact the master of India." 

The testimony of Sir Henry Rawlinson, a 
profound student of the region, as to the impor- 
tance of Herat, is "well worth being heard. 
More than fifteen years ago this eminent geog- 
rapher declared : ' ; Russia will assuredly some 
day draw that final parallel from Askabad on the 
south-east corner of the Caspian, along the Per- 
sian frontier to Herat. Established on such a 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 107 

line, her position would indeed be formidable. 
Troops, stores and material might be concen- 
trated to any extent at Askabad. The country 
between that port and Herat is open and admi- 
rably supplied. A line of military posts would 
connect the two positions, and effectually control 
the Turcomans, thereby conferring an essential 
benefit on Persia, and securing her good-will and 
cooperation. Herat has been often called ' the 
Key of India,' and fully deserves its reputation as 
the most important military position in Central 
Asia. The earthworks which surround the 
town are of the most colossal character, and 
might be strengthened indefinitely. Water and 
supplies abound, and routes from all the great 
cities to the north, which would furnish the 
Russian supports, meet in this favored spot. 

' ' In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that if 
Russia were once established in full strength at 
Herat, and her communications were secured in 
one direction with Askabad through Meshed, in 
another with Khiva through Merv, and in a 
third with Tashkend and Bokhara through My- 
meneh and the passage of the Oxus, all the 



108 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

forces of Asia would be inadequate to expel her 
from the position. Supposing, too, that she 
were bent on mischief — and it is only hostility 
to England that would be likely to lead her into 
so advanced and menacing a position — she 
would have the means of seriously injuring us ; 
since, in addition to her own forces, the unchal- 
lenged occupation of Herat would place the 
whole military resources of Persia and Afghan- 
istan at her disposal." 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 109 



VIII. 

ENGLAND VERSUS RUSSIA. 

Many conjectures have been expressed by 
eminent writers on Eastern questions as to the 
real purpose of Russia in extending her domin- 
ions southward in Central Asia. Some of these 
are bold in their belief that Russia meditates the 
conquest, sooner or later, of India itself. Some 
are of opinion that Russia is simply seeking an 
outlet for her commerce in the southern Asiatic 
seas. Some are confident that her chief object 
is to control the vast commerce of China, and 
indeed of all Asia. Some think that territorial 
greed and the ambition to found a great Asiatic 
empire lie at the bottom of her proceeding. 
Some suspect that the ancient Russian aspiration 
to possess Constantinople impels the aggression ; 
that she either intends to approach the capital of 
the Caliph from the Asiatic side, or to be in a 



IIO ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

position to overawe India, and so at an oppor- 
tune moment to compel the assent of England 
to her occupation of the long-coveted city. 

Another suggestion has recently been made 
why Russia may be willing, in spite of her 
desperate financial condition and her shattered 
credit, to enter upon a great war. It is hinted 
that the wide discontent which prevails through- 
out European Russia at the rule of the Czar, 
revealed by the hidden conspiracy and fitfully 
daring deeds of the Nihilists, influences the Czar 
and his advisers to think that perhaps a war 
would distract the minds of his subjects from their 
oppressions, and unite the people in an absorption 
in a great thrilling event. Such a policy on the 
part of tyrants who have been beset with similar 
dangers in their internal government has again 
and again been repeated in history. Both the 
Napoleons resorted to foreign war as a safety-valve 
for the growing disaffection of their subjects. 

It is a very wide-spread if not the prevailing 
opinion in England, that the presence of Russia 
in Central Asia means at least three of the pur- 
poses above indicated. Many Englishmen fully 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. m 

believe that Russia proposes to approach near 
enough to India to impose a check upon England 
in the East, and thus, by tying the hands of 
her traditional rival, be enabled to undertake that 
conquest of Constantinople which was the 
dream of Peter the Great, and the failure to ac- 
complish which broke the heart of the austere 
and haughty Nicholas ; that she also hopes, at 
some time or other, to avail herself of a revolt 
among the Hindoo provinces from English rule, 
to enter her w r edge of intrigue, bribery, and 
promises, following this up by the actual invasion 
of India ; and thirdly, in the meanwhile, to ob- 
tain for herself the monopoly of Oriental trade. 

It is true that Mr. Schuyler, probably the 
best informed of American writers on the sub- 
ject, declares, in his " Turkistan," that these 
English theories of the Russian advance in Cen- 
tral Asia are fallacious. He says that " Russia 
has no plot to dominate the whole of Asia, nor 
has she any settled intention of making an attack 
on India, nor even any desire for the possession 
of India." He attributes the Russian encroach- 
ments to ' ' yearly and almost daily changing 



112 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

circumstances ; " yet he thinks that, in the case of 
war between Russia and England, and if Russia 
found it practicable to make a diversion on 
India, she would not probably hesitate to do so. 
Indeed, Mr. Schuyler himself points out that the 
Czar Paul proposed a joint invasion of India to 
the first Napoleon, and that such a design was also 
seriously entertained, early in his reign, by the 
Czar Nicholas. 

Nine years have elapsed, however, since Mr. 
Schuyler's very able work was written ; and 
during these nine years many things have hap- 
pened. The events which have since taken 
place serve to provide some further material for 
surmising what Russia's purposes really are. 
The acquisition of the Merv oasis certainly was 
not needed to preserve the Russian outposts on 
the Oxus from attack, nor did the excuse that the 
frontier must be protected exist to justify that 
proceeding. The evident desire of Russia to 
possess Herat can only be explained on the 
supposition that she has other objects than merely 
to secure the dominion of Turkistan which she 
has acquired. It is a desire prompted by a policy 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 1 13 

of aggression, not by one of protection and 
defence. And the fact that in Herat Russia 
seeks to hold ' ' the Gate of India " has a signifi- 
cance which did not necessarily apply to the 
conquest of the Khanates, the domination of the 
Oxus valley, or the occupation of Merv and 
Sarakhs. # 

From all the circumstances revealed in the 
course of Russia's movements, and from her 
present attitude, it is surely not an unfair assump- 
tion that the three objects with which she is 
credited by enlightened Englishmen are really 
those which she at least has in contemplation, if 
they are not those which she has definitely de- 
cided to pursue. It is not too much to believe 
of an ambitious, covetous and still semi-bar- 
baric regime, like that of the Czars, that it is 
aiming at a threefold purpose ; that it seeks a 
military, a political and a commercial advantage 
in its Oriental advance. It is highly probable 
that Russia aims to found her Oriental empire 
on a broader base ; to gain access for her fleets 
and merchant marine in the south Asiatic seas ; 
to secure such a footing as to checkmate the 



114 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

ancient opposition of England to her designs on 
Turkey ; and to command the old highways and 
establish new ones, by which she can acquire 
exclusive control of Oriental trade. 

That her policy bears a commercial as well as 
a military aspect is apparent from her activity in 
restoring and regulating the great emporiums of 
Turkistan, and the steps she has taken, as fast 
as her conquests were made, to establish com- 
mercial depots and afford protection for caravans. 
Her commercial policy, too, is evidently two- 
fold. She wishes to monopolize the market of 
such thriving cities as Bokhara, Kashgar, Yark- 
and and Samarkand for Russian manufactures, 
thus replacing the trade in English manufactures 
via India ; and she wishes to possess and guard 
a direct highway of communication between her 
European dominions and China. She has gone 
far on her way to accomplish both these objects ; 
but her task is not yet completed, and, as its 
area narrows, the struggle to complete it must 
become more and more bitter. England is wak- 
ing up to the very serious danger of losing, at 
the very least, the monopoly of that Oriental 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 115 

commerce which is one of the main advantages 
of holding India, and for which the possession 
of India has given her large facilities. 

But, whether it is Russia's purpose to pursue 
all or only one of the objects suggested, in any 
case she distinctly threatens the interests, the 
prestige and the power of England in the East. 
Her presence on the. frontier, and, much more, 
within the territory of Afghanistan, must be a 
perpetual menace to the British empire. No 
trust can be reposed by English statesmen in 
Russian assurances, promises, or even treaties. 
Again and again have Russian duplicity and bad 
faith been rudely demonstrated to confiding 
premiers and secretaries of state. More than 
ever is it clear that the only reliance England 
has for the defence of her position in the East, 
and the success of her policy of safe-guarding 
India as well in Europe and Africa as in India 
itself, is upon that disciplined valor of the British 
soldiery which has never yet faltered, and upon 
the prodigious wealth which British thrift and 
energy have accumulated in generations of enter- 
prise, colonization and sturdy toil. 



Il6 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

This even the most peacefully inclined of Eng- 
lish statesmen are beginning to perceive. It is 
recognized that in order to hold the magnificent 
dependency of India, and to preserve the proud 
city of the Bosphorus,. England and Russia 
must sooner or later clinch in what will proba- 
bly be a colossal conflict ; and those who would 
see the semi-barbaric races of the most ancient 
continent receive an Anglo-Saxon rather than a 
semi-Tartaric civilization will, in that event, 
bid God-speed to the arms of our mother isle. 



THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 548 760 A 



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